The People That We Love
by xperimental
Summary: The sequel to Growing Up. Some things change over time and some remain remarkably the same.
1. You Can't Always Get What You Want

**Title: The People That We Love  
Author: xperimental  
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.  
Rating: PG-13  
Pairings: Spencer/Ashley, Kyla/Glen  
A/N: The sequel to Growing Up.  
Summary: Some things change over time and some remain remarkably the same.**

* * *

**Chapter 1 - You Can't Always Get What You Want  
**

"I'm so sorry to keep you waiting," a balding man apologized, rummaging through his filing cabinet.

Ashley just rolled her eyes and gestured for him to get on with it. They'd been through all this way too many times for niceties.

"Ah, here it is, Davies." He turned and sat down behind his desk, clearing his throat. Truth was, he didn't need the file, he knew exactly what it said. He was just stalling for time because honestly, the dark haired one scared him and he knew that she wasn't going to like what he had to say. "Well, I afraid that your application to adopt has been denied. There are just too many more suitable couples-"

"You mean straight couples, right?" Ashley interrupted angrily. Once the Republicans got back into office, they had introduced laws that made it almost impossible for same sex couples to adopt. Even the ridiculously wealthy ones.

Mr. Weston looked at the couple sympathetically. If it was up to him, he would be giving the genetically blessed couple as many babies as they could handle. But it wasn't and he was bound by the rules put in place by his superiors. "Your sexuality has nothing to do with it. We don't discriminate here." There wasn't a person in the room who didn't know that was a lie.

"That so?"

Weston looked down, he hated to have to do this. "We also don't accept applicants with criminal records."

"What are you talking about?" Spencer spoke up for the first time.

"The mandatory background check turned up that Mrs Davies." Then he realized that he'd have to be more specific. "Ashley, was once charged with possession of cocaine and marijuana."

"I was fourteen and the drugs weren't even mine," Ashley growled. She had just been holding them for her father. She was about two seconds away from leaping across the desk and strangling the man. Spencer's hand on her wrist was the only thing that stopped her. "And how did you find that out anyway, I thought that those records are sealed."

"I'm sorry but I'm not at liberty to reveal the source." He really was sorry. But he had a job to do and a family to feed.

"Of course you can't."

"The fact that you're still technically fertile also works against you," he added.

Upon seeing her wife's downcast expression, Ashley shook her head bitterly. "Awesome, thanks for nothing."

"Ashley," Spencer reprimanded her softly.

"I really wish I could be of more assistance but you just don't fit our guidelines," Mr. Weston said sympathetically. "Perhaps you could try another agency."

Spencer nodded and smiled wearily. "We know. Thanks for all your help Mr. Weston."

-

"I don't get why you were thanking that guy," Ashley said, squeezing the steering wheel so hard that her knuckles were turning white, as she tried to calm herself down.

"It's called having manners, Ash" her wife sighed, not looking away from the scenery passing her window.

Ashley looked over at Spencer in concern. She didn't know how many more disappointments the blonde could take on the baby front. "I'm sorry."

"Why?"

"Because if I didn't have a record-"

Finally Spencer looked at her. "Ash, it's not your fault. We both know that it was just another stupid excuse for them to reject our application. I'm not blaming you and you shouldn't be blaming yourself either."

Ashley had to force herself to look away from Spencer's sad blue eyes and look back at the road. "Yeah…I know."

"So my parents thirtieth wedding anniversary is coming up," Spencer changed the subject to one that wasn't quite as depressing.

"Seriously?" Ashley went with it. "Wow. They did the whole shotgun wedding thing, didn't they?"

Spencer frowned, she'd never really thought about it. "Why do you say that?"

"Because of how Bridezilla-ish your mom got when she was helping us to plan ours. It was obviously transference, trying to give you the wedding that she always wanted…Plus she was totally knocked up with Glen at the time." Ashley chuckled at Spencer's shocked look. "Don't look so surprised. I can count, you know."

"I know," Spencer said, laughing to herself. "I just can't believe that you worked it out before I did."

Ashley smirked triumphantly. "You mean that you didn't know that the high and mighty Paula Carlin was lying when she claimed that the first time she had sex was on her wedding night? Damn Spencer, I worked that out back in the tenth grade."

"I don't know, I guess I never really wanted to think about my parents having sex. Ever."

"Well, at least you didn't have to see it…I mean, I never saw my parents actually doing each other, only other people, but that was still bad enough," Ashley rambled.

Spencer marvelled at how her wife could talk about her ridiculously tumultuous childhood as though it was all totally normal.

Ashley pulled into the Carlin's driveway and killed the engine. She took off her seatbelt and turned to fully face her wife ."So you're okay?" she asked, reaching out and cupping Spencer's cheek.

"I should be used to it by now," Spencer said sadly.

"But you're not."

"But I'm not," she confirmed.

"You know we don't have to do this right now, we could ask your parents to keep Dec for the night."

Spencer shook her head, that was the last thing she wanted. "No. I want him home with us."

"Okay." Ashley leaned in to kiss her wife and pulled her into a hug. "We'll work something out," she assured her.

"I know."

"How'd it go?" Paula asked the second they walked in the front door. Ashley just shook her head in reply while Spencer looked away.

"Where's Declan?" she asked.

"I just put him down for a nap upstairs."

Spencer nodded and moved to go upstairs to check on her son, leaving Ashley to deal with her mother.

"So what happened?" Paula asked, Ashley who had followed her into the kitchen where she was making coffee.

"Same thing that happened at the last six agencies," Ashley said bitterly.

"They shouldn't be allowed to do this. It's so unfair."

"You know, I just wish that they'd actually come out and say that it's because we're gay. Instead they come up with lame excuses like we haven't been married long enough or that we're too young." Or because of a bogus drug bust that had happened half a lifetime ago. "It just really sucks and I'm worried about what it's doing to Spence."

Ashley knew, better than anybody, the toll it was all taking on the younger girl.

Paula looked at Ashley over the rim of her mug, studying the brunette's tired features. "What about you, how're you doing?"

Ashley just shrugged, knowing that she wasn't nearly as affected by the constant rejections by adoption agencies because she didn't really mind if they never had another child. Truth was, while she may have dreamed of having a huge family when she was younger, faced with the reality of how much of Spencer's attention a baby took away from her, she found her position had changed. "I'm fine. This isn't about me."

"Isn't it?" Paula asked. She wasn't surprised by her daughter in law's words. Ashley had more than proved her devotion to Spencer over the years and Paula knew that the brunette would do anything, without question, to keep her wife happy.

"Spencer wants another baby," Ashley avoided the question. "And I'm willing to do whatever it takes to make that happen." _'What Spencer wants, Spencer gets,'_ was Ashley rule to live by.

Ashley had even been prepared to sacrifice her totally hot bod to provide Spencer with another kid. But during the initial examinations, the doctors had discovered that due to extensive scarring from her teenage miscarriage, she would never be able to carry a foetus to full term. Aiden wasn't even around anymore and he was still managing fucking up their lives.

She ran a hand through her hair and slid off her stool. "I should go and check on Spence."

-

She found Spencer standing in the doorway of what used to be her old bedroom, staring adoringly at their son as he slept.

Declan Davies, a three and a half year old who loved his mothers and dinosaurs, in that order. He had inherited Spencer's blonde hair and stunning blue eyes and bore such a strong resemblance to Spencer's maternal grandfather that they had named him after him.

Ashley came up behind Spencer and kissed the side of her neck as she wrapped her arms around her wife. "Are you coming downstairs? Paula made brownies."

Spencer closed her eyes let herself relax back against Ashley. "Mmm, I'll be down in a minute." She opened her eyes and sighed. "We're doing a good job with him, right? We're not bad parents."

"No." Ashley hated everyone who had a hand in making Spencer doubt herself. "Spence, you are a fantastic mother. Much better than I am. You know, I wish you were my mom…that didn't come out right."

Spencer laughed at Ashley deliberate screw up. "You underestimate yourself," she said, kissing her wife's cheek.

Downstairs the doorbell rang and then kept on ringing. "It's Kyla," said Ashley, recognizing her sister's impatient ring. "I'd better go and let her in before she wakes Dec up."

-

Ashley opened the door to find her sister dressed in an outrageously short red dress and matching…cape? Her daughter, Holly, was standing next to her with a back pack slung over one shoulder.

"I'm sorry, I don't think we ordered any adult entertainment for this evening. I think you must have the wrong address," Ashley said, not bothering to stifle her giggles.

Holly laughed at her aunt's comment. "I told you, mom."

"Hey kid," Ashley greeted the eight year old with a high five. "Grandma's made brownies."

"Sweet." With that Holly abandoned the two shorter females in favor of seeking out chocolatey goodness. She was so much like Glen that it was frightening.

"Has she had another growth spurt?" Ashley wondered. Holly was only eight and was taller than both her mother and aunt. "I thought they weren't supposed to get those until they were teenagers." She turned her attention back to her sister. "So what's up with the outfit?"

"We're going to a fundraiser tonight, it's a costume ball."

"And who are you supposed to be? Little Red Riding Whore?"

Kyla frowned. When Ashley Davies was telling you that you looked slutty you knew you had a problem. "Holly," she addressed her daughter, who'd just come back into the room with a brownie in each hand and one in her mouth. "Did I ever tell you about how your aunt spent half of her honeymoon in the hospital after eating plastic fruit?"

"That so wasn't my fault," Ashley said defensively. "I mean, who the hell puts fake grapes in a complementary fruit basket?" It could have happened to anyone.

"Someone as dumb as the person who ate more than one of them."

Ashley pursed her lips thoughtfully. "…touche."

Kyla smirked and checked her watch, then hurriedly kissed her daughter on the cheek. "I am running so late. You be good for your grandparents."

"Yes, mom," Holly grumbled. She was always good.

"Ash, can you thank Paula for me? I really have to go. I was meant to pick Glen up from work five minutes ago."

Ashley nodded. "Yeah, sure. Go. Watch out for the big bad wolf…unless you're planning on getting eaten tonight."

Kyla rolled her eyes. "Believe me, that's so not going to be happening." She waved and started running, the best she could in her stripper heels, towards her car.

Closing the door, Ashley threw an arm around her niece's shoulders. "Come on kid, let's go and watch some Scooby Doo."

-

"I'm having a track meet this Saturday," Holly informed her favorite aunt, as they sat together watching a classic episode of Scooby Doo, Where Are You?, that's not to say that she didn't love Spencer, it was just that Ashley was her hero.

"Yeah?"

"Uh-huh. You're going to be there, right?"

"Don't worry kid, we'll be there cheering you on. We'll be all 'Run, Forest, Run!'"

Holly looked at her aunt like she'd grown another head. "My name isn't Forest."

"I know that. That was a Forest Gump reference."

"Who?" Holly asked cluelessly.

Ashley cringed and buried her face in her hands. "Oh God, I'm so old!"

"You're twenty eight, Ash," Spencer admonished her jokingly, coming in from the kitchen where she'd been having a heart to heart with her mother.

"If you're old then I must be the crypt keeper," Paula added, following her daughter.

"Don't worry, Paula, I'd still do you," Ashley assured her mother in law.

The older blonde smirked, now used to Ashley's comments. "I'll take that as a compliment."

Spencer took a seat on the arm of the couch that was closest to Ashley and casually laid an arm across the back of her wife's shoulders. "We should start thinking about heading home. It's almost time for Declan's dinner," she said, playing with the tips of Ashley's hair.

Ashley nodded in agreement. "Yeah, we should wake him up, otherwise we'll never be able to get him to bed tonight." She put a hand on Spencer's thigh to stop her from getting up. "I'll get him."

"You sure?"

"Yeah." She kissed the back of the hand Spencer had resting around her shoulders and got up. "Holly, you wanna come and help me wake up your cousin?"

Holly looked away from the tv. "Can we do the toothpaste thing again? That was funny."

"No!" Spencer and Paula both said firmly. Declan's hair had smelled like spearmint for a whole week after the last time.

Ashley put her hands up placating. "Chill, I got this."

"She hasn't changed at all, has she," Paula remarked to her daughter as Ashley and Holly raced each other up the stairs. Despite maturing in appearance (Gone were the colourful streaks in her hair and, much to Ashley's dismay, the glasses were now a permanent feature), she hadn't matured in personality.

"Not one bit," Spencer agreed. And she wouldn't have it any other way.

-

"He asleep?" Spencer asked Ashley as she entered their bedroom, yawning.

Ashley nodded, shedding her jeans in favor of something more comfortable to sleep in. "Uh-huh, three songs later. You know, you get off easy, only having to read him one of those Mr Men books."

Spencer smirked watching Ashley pull on her favorite pair of boxer shorts. "Hey, you were the one who insisted on starting his musical education early."

"It's the only way to keep him from getting sucked into whatever lame pop/rock band that is going to huge during his teen years. He'll thank me when he's older."

"Oh, I'm sure."

"Hey, wouldn't have your life been better if you had had me around to keep you from fangirling Destiny's Child when you were thirteen?"

"Yes," Spencer answered without having to think about it. "Yes, it would have."

"Damn straight." Ashley slipped under the covers and smiled as Spencer turned off the bedside light and cuddled up against her side. "So, you want to talk about it now?" She knew Spencer well enough to know that what had happened that afternoon was still troubling her.

"I've been thinking that he was right when he said that I can still have kids-"

"Spencer, no," Ashley cut her off, knowing exactly where this was heading. "I am not letting you put yourself through that again. No way."

"But-"

"Spence, you almost died." Ashley felt herself getting choked up just thinking about it. Spencer had been six months pregnant with Declan when she had suddenly developed an uncommonly severe case of gestational diabetes. Ashley had never truly known how deeply she loved Spencer until the day she came home to find her passed out and non-responsive on their bedroom floor.

"The doctors said that there's a chance that it wouldn't happen again," Spencer pressed.

"And an even bigger chance that it would. So no, it's not happening." Ashley didn't care if she came off sounding harsh or unfair, she was protecting Spencer and that was all that mattered. She hugged Spencer tighter and kissed the top of her head. "There are other options and tomorrow we'll start looking at them."

"Okay," Spencer agreed softly, tilting her head up to kiss the underside of Ashley's jaw. Her thumb traced against the tattoo that was inked across the inside of her wife's wrist and remembered how Ashley had surprised her with it on their honeymoon, pre-hospitalization of course.

She just come back from a day in the hotel's spa to find Ashley relaxing on the king size bed with a fresh bandage wrapped around her wrist. At first, she'd been worried that the brunette had hurt herself until Ashley had peeled the bandage back to reveal Spencer's name in black script across the inside of the wrist, where she'd once joked about getting a script S. She'd made a comment about the tattoo being kinda permanent but Ashley had just smiled and told her that she was kinda permanent and at that exact moment, any lingering doubt she had about Ashley's commitment to her was permanently erased.

"Hey Ash?"

"Yeah?" Ashley mumbled, already drifting off to sleep.

"Have I told you that I love you today?"

"Not since this morning. I was beginning to wonder if it was still true."

Spencer squeezed her arms tighter around her wife. "Always."

TBC


	2. It's Not Me, It's You

**Chapter 2 - It's Not Me, It's You**

The next morning, Ashley sat at the kitchen table filling in the Sudoku puzzle in the newspaper. She'd been doing them over a year now (to, in her words, help make her 'more smarter') and still hadn't successfully completed a single one. But she had a feeling that was about to change. With her tongue peeking out the corner of her mouth, she rapidly filled in the remaining three boxes.

"I did it!" she shouted, jumping up, her arms raised in victory. "Spence, I did it!" she said, proudly, thrusting the paper under her wife's nose.

Spencer indulged Ashley, checking her work over and instantly spotting several mistakes. She hated to have to do this… "You have two nines in the same box."

Ashley stopped her victory dance immediately. "Really?" she whimpered, crestfallen.

Smiling sympathetically, Spencer handed the paper back to Ashley so she could see for herself and went to the refrigerator to get more milk for her Cheerio's. "Damn."

"What?" Ashley asked, looking up from her failed puzzle to find Spencer standing there with a milk carton in her hand.

"We're out of milk, I meant to go shopping yesterday while Mom still had Declan but it slipped my mind."

"So go today," Ashley suggested. Spencer regarded her wife hesitantly. It was a well known and widely accepted fact that leaving Ashley alone with impressionable young children was never a good idea, even when they were her own. "Me and Dec will go with you. It'll be fun!"

"Okay," Spencer agreed uneasily, wondering what the hell she was getting herself into.

-

Shopping for groceries with Ashley and Declan had so far been surprisingly uneventful. Ashley managed to keep Declan entertained for a while by pretending to be a vampire and randomly popping up behind Spencer and biting her on the neck while she tried to shop. But eventually even that stopped working and the toddler was starting to get bored and moody.

"Declan, let it go please," Spencer said in the voice she reserved for motherly scolding. Delcan had latched onto some random piece of colorful packaging as they passed it by and was trying to drag it into the cart with him.

Declan glowered at her and pulled harder.

"Hey Dec," Ashley tried a different approach. "You wanna come with me and check out the toys?"

Declan brightened and nodded. "Yup." He held his arms out for her to pick him up.

"That's cool, isn't it?" Ashley checked with Spencer, while lifting her boy out of their shopping cart.

"It's fine, I'll be able to get this done faster on my own." Ashley had never got the hang of shopping for groceries, despite Spencer's best efforts to train her.

Spencer kissed them both goodbye before Ashley led Declan away to find the toy section.

-

"Ashley!"

Ashley froze. She knew that voice, it was the voice of douchiness.

"Aiden." She turned around slowly, hoping that it was all a figment of her imagination. The years, and steroids, had not been kind to Aiden, who looked at least ten years older than he really was. His hair was even starting to grey.

"Wow, you look amazing."

"Thank you." _Not sorry that I can't say the same for you._

"Momma." The pair's attention was drawn to the little boy tugging on the leg of Ashley's jeans. "Who this?"

"Nobody, Dec. Go back to your toys."

"Y-You have a kid?" Aiden stuttered in amazement.

"Yes. I can actually have children without your involvement. It's shocking, I know."

"So he's yours and - "

"Spencer's."

Aiden nodded and crouched down to Declan's level, intent on introducing the boy to his Uncle Aiden.

"Don't," Ashley warned, stepping protectively in front of her child. "He doesn't need to know you."

"Come on, Ash," Aiden returned to his full height. "Shouldn't he get to know the guy that made it okay for his parents to be together?"

Ashley laughed, she couldn't help it. "You're kidding, right?" _How the hell did he get so delusional?_

He didn't see why that was funny. "No. You know, I always thought that when it came time for you guys to have kids, you'd come to me."

_As if I'd want to pass your flawed genes onto my kids._

"I mean, after everything I did for you-"

"You held a ladder! And the only reason you were even there was because it wouldn't fit in my Porsche and you wouldn't let me just borrow your car. And that in no way excuses all the other sh-" Ashley remembered that her son was within earshot. "-crap you pulled. And it certainly doesn't give you the right to father our children."

"But I thought you'd forgiven me for all that," Aiden whined, confused.

"No. Aiden, for me to have forgiven you, you would've had to have apologized for what you did."

"It wasn't my fault, you were there too, you could have stopped me," Aiden defended himself. If Ashley didn't want to be with him, she could've broken it off at anytime, it wasn't his fault she screwed things up with Spencer. "I didn't do anything wrong."

"You took advantage of me when I was vulnerable."

"I'd been shot through the heart! I wasn't exactly in the best headspace."

"You know what Aiden, just because your general existence is like one huge epic fail macro, it still doesn't give you the right to throw everybody else under a bus." It felt so good to tell the self entitled dumbass everything that she had only realized when he wasn't around for her to yell at him.

"Why are you saying all of this?" Aiden asked with a pained expression. "I thought that we were friends."

"We're not. We're not friends, we're not anything. As of this moment, we'll never have anything to do with each other ever again." And just to make sure he got the message. "So let me make this perfectly clear to you. If you ever come near me or my family again, I will bitchslap your lopsided face off, you ridiculous douche."

Aiden looked hurt, or constipated, Ashley couldn't tell. "You don't mean that."

Ashley glowered at him. "Do you really want to try me?" She waited until Aiden backed down and sheepishly retreated back into the feminine hygiene aisle. "Come on, Dec, let's go and find your mother."

Declan looked up at his mother, a Triceratops clutched in his tiny hands. "Can I have this?"

"Sure." Never mind that he had at least three already in his collection, this one was yellow. She bent down and hoisted him up onto her shoulders. "When we get home we'll introduce him to all the other dinosaurs in Jurassic Park."

-

Spencer was trying to decide between pasta sauces when Ashley galloped up next to her with their son riding on her shoulders. "Another one?" she questioned, noticing the dinosaur toy Declan was holding.

"You can never have enough dinosaurs, Spencer. Ever," Ashley said, seriously. "So are you almost done?"

Spencer looked down at the almost full shopping cart and frowned, trying to remember if she'd forgotten anything. She frowned even harder when she felt the pad of Ashley's thumb run over the creases that had formed inbetween her eyebrows. "Why'd you do that?"

Ashley shrugged and grinned. "You just looked so cute with your little furrowed brow."

"Idiot," Spencer muttered affectionately, rolling her eyes. "And yes, I'm almost done."

"Thank god." Ashley handed Declan off to Spencer and started to push the heavy cart for her.

"Why are you in such a rush all of a sudden?"

"Aiden's here," said Ashley, expecting the annoying bastard to pop up at the sound of his name. She was so relieved when he didn't.

"Aiden? Aiden Dennison?"

"Uh-huh."

"Wow. I haven't seen him since he was in that commercial for erectile dysfunction last year." It had been a source of endless amusement in the Davies household. Ashley still had a copy of it saved to bust out whenever she needed a good laugh. "How'd he look?"

"Gross. His manboobs are sagging and was his voice always so annoying?"

Spencer laughed and put Declan down so he could walk on his own next to her. "You talked to him?"

"Believe me, it couldn't have been avoided. He caught me by surprise," Ashley said as they headed towards the check out. "He just came up and like started chatting. Then he tried to talk to Dec and I was like hell no. Then he got all pissy and started talking about how we should gotten him to be our donor because he made it okay for us to be together or something stupid like that."

"Are you serious?"

Ashley nodded. "He hasn't changed at all." She reached out a hand and pulled Spencer closer to her, spotting Aiden a few checkouts over. It looked like all he was buying was self tanner and toothpaste. "Once a douchebag, always a douchebag." _Some things will never change._

TBC


	3. My Universe Is You

**Chapter 3 - My Universe Is You**

"That's a pretty dinosaur," Spencer complimented her son's drawing as he sat beside her on the floor.

"It's a duck," Declan corrected her, swapping his green crayola for a red one. "You're silly, mommy."

Spencer titled her head and squinted. _I guess, if you look at it this way…_ Obviously, Declan had inherited her lack of artistic talent.

Ashley came in from the study and looked down at her son's work of art. "That's an awesome looking duck, Dec," she said, ruffling Declan's long blond curls and sitting next to Spencer on the floor. "Here." She handed Spencer a stack of papers.

"What's this?"

"Well, I told you that we were going to look at other options. So I've been doing some research."

Spencer turned the papers around in her hands so she could read them. "The Lakehurst Institute?"

"They specialize in babies for same sex couples. They're the ones that Ellen and Portia used to have their kid." When they had first decided to have a baby, the technology was still in the experimental stage, so they went with the traditional sperm donor route but now that the procedure had been proven to be effective, Ashley didn't see why they shouldn't try it.

"They'd take one of your eggs and stem cells from my bone marrow and then like scramble the DNA together in a lab." Ashley boiled the process down to it's simplest form. "Then I guess we'll get a surrogate for them to stick it in to bake for nine months. Like a cake." _Mmmm, now I really want some cake. I wonder if we have any?_ "And then ta-da! A baby that's biologically all ours."

"I don't know, Ash," Spencer said apprehensively, hating that this all had to be so complicated. "Isn't it supposed to be really expensive?"

"It's only five hundred thousand and we happen to be fortunate enough to be in a position to afford it." Compared to the fortune Ashley had amassed over the years, five hundred grand was pocket change.

"And I've heard that having your bone marrow taken is really painful."

Ashley just shrugged and bashfully looked down at her hands. "I just figured that after everything you went through with Dec, it was my turn," she mumbled before looking up. "Look, it's just an idea. I'm not saying that we have to do it-"

"I know," Spencer interrupted gently, brushing Ashley's hair back from where it had fallen across her face. "Thank you."

"All I did was print some stuff out."

"No. I mean that I know that kids aren't really your thing." She'd have to have been stupid not to notice. "But you've still gone through all this with me and been so great-"

"You don't have to thank me for supporting you in what you want to do, Spence. It makes me happy to make you happy." Ashley logic was very simple; When Spencer was happy, she was happy and when Spencer was sad, then she was even sadder, and that's all the there was too it.

"I got pretty lucky with you, didn't I," Spencer said, looking adoringly at her wife.

Ashley smiled smugly and nodded. "Can you imagine what would've happened if you hadn't gotten lost that day at school?"

Spencer shuddered. It didn't even bare thinking about. "I can't. I can't imagine my life without you in it."

"Me either," Ashley admitted softly. She really could not even imagine where she would be today without Spencer. Lonely and drunk in a huge empty mansion, no doubt. That's if she hadn't already choked to death on her own vomit.

She felt a tug on the bottom of her jeans and broke the intense stare she and Spencer were locked in, to find her son holding out a piece of paper to her. "For me?"

Declan nodded and held his artwork up for her inspection.

"Cool," Ashley praised the mass of colorful squiggles. "Very abstract. I think this is one for the fridge. What do you think, Spence?"

"Definitely."

-

Kyla walked down the stairs to find Ashley rummaging through her refrigerator.

"What are you doing?" Kyla asked. She knew she never should've given Ashley a key.

"Looking for cake," Ashley replied without removing her head from the fridge. "We don't have any. And apparently, neither do you…Oh wait! Found some." She kicked the refrigerator door shut while unwrapping the cling wrap from a large slice of chocolate cake.

Kyla gasped in outrage as Ashley took a huge bite of the cake. "Ashley! I was saving that!"

Her sister just shrugged and rolled her eyes.

"God, you are so selfish."

"I'm not selfish!" Ashley protested with her mouth full, spitting crumbs everywhere.

"Ashley, you stole food from your own baby," Kyla provided one of the many examples she had of her sister's selfishness.

"It was one time!" That they all knew about.  
_  
"Come on, Dec, please just eat it," Ashley urged. She had tried everything that she could think of to try and get Declan to eat his creamed bananas but the nine month old was having none of it. She didn't understand what she was doing wrong, Spencer always made it look so easy. "Look, it's really yummy," she said, touching the spoon to her tongue._

_"Actually, that ain't half bad," she said thoughtfully and stuck another spoonful into her mouth._

_Seeing how much his mother was enjoying his food, Declan started to cry and reached out for the jar._

_Ashley quickly pulled it back. "No, you didn't want it, it's mine now."_

_"Ashley!"_

_Uh-oh. Busted._

"Ashley!" Kyla repeated, snapping Ashley out of her flashback.

_Creamed bananas would go awesomely with this cake. _"What?"

"I asked how it went at the adoption agency yesterday."

"Um, badly." Ashley shrugged. "Now we're looking at other options."

"Like what?" Kyla asked.

"Like getting a surrogate and we're thinking about going to Lakehurst."

"The place where they make female sperm out of bone marrow?" Kyla made a face. "That seems like an awful lot of trouble."

"It'll be worth it."

Kyla shook her head. "I don't even know why Spencer wants to have anymore kids with you. You're horrible with children."

"No, I'm not." Kids loved her. Even the one that she'd accidentally brought home that one time, instead of Declan, had wanted to stay with her instead of going back to his real mother.

"Ashley, do you remember the time you let Holly watch Snakes On A Plane?"

"So? That's an awesome movie."

"She was five!" Kyla exclaimed. That was the last time Ashley was allowed to babysit without Spencer around. "You know, she still has nightmares about that."

"It's character building. I watched Texas Chainsaw Massacre when I was four and I turned out fine!"

"That's a matter of opinion," Kyla remarked dryly and decided to drop the subject. "So you guys are going to get a surrogate. What are you going to do, find some random lady on the street to impregnate with your baby? That sounds kind of sketchy."

"No, we're not going to use a random lady. If we go that way then we'll hire a professional."

Kyla let out a scandalized gasp. "You're going to hire a prostitute to have your baby?"

"No! God, you're so retarded." _We'd have to pay a prostitute by the hour and it would end up costing way too much._ "There are women who are professional surrogates, like they get paid thousands and thousands of dollars to have other peoples babies."

"Women who I'm assuming didn't graduate high school."

"Um, neither did you, Ky," Ashley felt the need to point out. "And who cares if they're smart or not."

"You're right. It doesn't matter." Kyla smiled impishly. "Especially since you're the one that was forced to repeat kindergarten."

Ashley scowled while her sister laughed at her. "The round pegs totally fit through the square hole! It wasn't my fault that the teachers decided that my lateral thinking was a sign that I was slow. If that happened nowadays they'd all be saying that I was some kind of child genius."

"Did you just say nowadays?"

"I did," Ashley admitted, hanging her head in shame.

"Holly was right, you really are getting old."

TBC


	4. Warm Fuzzy Feelings

**Chapter 4 - Warm Fuzzy Feelings  
**

"So what are we going to get your parents for their anniversary?" Ashley asked Spencer as they crossed the grass from their car to the athletics field, Declan swinging their joined hands in between them.

"Well, the traditional gift is pearls. I think dad is getting mom a necklace."

"Wait, Arthur's going to give Paula a pearl necklace?" Ashley couldn't keep herself from laughing.

Spencer frowned. "Why is that so funny?"

_Oh, sweet Spencer, so innocent to the heterosexuals and their disgusting sex acts._ "I'll tell you later," Ashley said, mindful of their son's presence between them. This was progress as a year ago she would've just blurted it out without a second thought. "Anyway, Paula doesn't really strike me as the pearl wearing type."

"She's not," Spencer agreed as they approached Kyla who was helping Holly warm up by the side of the track.

"So why don't we get them something that they'll both enjoy?"

"Ash, we are not buying them a holiday house in Maui. It's way too expensive." Spencer truly appreciated her wife's generous side but also knew that Ashley could take things a little too far.

Ashley rolled her eyes at how Spencer was always so caught up on the cost of things and threw herself down in an undignified, yet sexy, sprawl across the bleachers.

"Sure, don't offer to help or anything," her half sister remarked sarcastically, dropping Holly's leg down from where she was stretching it out.

Ashley just smirked and swapped her ordinary black frames for her sunglasses.

"Hey," Spencer greeted, letting Declan go so he could climb his way into Ashley's lap. "Where's Glen?" she asked, not spotting her brother anywhere.

"Not here. Typical. He gets her into all these extracurricular activities and doesn't even bother to show up for any of them," Kyla said, bitterly.

Spencer was taken aback, wondering what her brother had done to piss his girlfriend off now. She knew that there must be a good reason for Glen not to be there, he hardly ever missed any of Holly's sporting events.

"He had to work," Holly explained patiently, putting her dark blonde hair up into a ponytail. She understood completely why her father couldn't be there and didn't hold it against him at all. "He has to do inventory today at the bar and half of the staff called in sick."

Once Kyla had announced her pregnancy, Glen finally got serious about his future and went to community college to get a degree in business. Two years ago he and Arthur opened their own sports bar and grill together.

"I guess that means that dad's not coming either." Spencer frowned, knowing that Paula was working today and also couldn't make it. Then she smiled when she felt Ashley's arm loop it's way around her neck from behind.

"I'm going to get Dec a drink," Ashley interrupted. "You want anything?"

"Just a water." Spencer gave Ashley a quick kiss to thank her.

""What about you guys?"

"I'm good," Holly said holding up her bottle of Powerade while Kyla just shook her head.

"Cool. Hey, I've got a surprise for you if you do good today."

"Way to put pressure on her, Ash," Kyla remarked, stepping up behind her daughter supportively.

Holly just rolled her eyes at her mother's over protectiveness. "Is it the advanced copy of Level 6's new album that you promised me?" she asked hopefully. Having a famous music producer as an aunt definitely had it's advantages.

"Maybe," Ashley teased.

Holly smirked confidently. "I'll crush 'em."

-

"I believe I owe you this," Ashley said, handing a cd off to her niece as they entered the ice cream parlor for a post-meet celebratory sundae. Holly had come first in three races and third in another, out of five she had participated in. She had more than earned her reward. "You did awesome, kid."

"It's just too bad her father wasn't there to see it," Kyla said with an unexpected amount of hostility in her voice. Ashley and Spencer exchanged confused glances as Holly's shoulder's dropped.

"Yeah," Spencer said, uncertainly. "That's too bad." She ushered Declan into a booth by the window while Ashley put her arm around Holly's slumped shoulders.

"Order whatever you guys want," she offered, trying to ease the tension. "I'm buying."

The smile quickly returned to Holly's face and she looked up at her aunt with hopeful brown eyes. "Can I get The King Kong?" Twelve scoops of chocolate ice cream smothered in hot fudge and whipped cream with sprinkles and chopped nuts on top sounded like heaven to her right about now. And if she finished it within thirty minutes it was free!

"Anything except that," Ashley clarified. She had made the mistake of letting Holly order The King Kong once, then had ended up eating over three quarters of it that the girl couldn't finish and spent that night with her head in the toilet while she puked it all up again. That amount of dairy just didn't agree with her system. After that night, Ashley had made a vow to never, ever let Holly order The King Kong again.

"Fine, I'll just have Cookies and Cream," sulked Holly.

"That's more like it. Spence, I know you want Rainbow Sherbet." Spencer always got Rainbow Sherbet. "Dec can have vanilla and I'm getting the Mint Choc Chip. Kyla, what do you want?"

"I'll have some Rocky Road," Kyla answered after much contemplation. She waited until Holly and Ashley were busy ordering at the counter to say to Spencer, "Rainbow Sherbet? You are _so_ gay! I can't believe that you ever thought you were straight."

"Neither can I, Kyla," Spencer said, looking over to the counter where Ashley and Holly now both had their shirts pulled up and were comparing their abs while they waited. "Neither can I."

TBC


	5. Do You Want To Know A Secret?

**Chapter 5 - Do You Want To Know A Secret? **

"Would you like to tell me what the hell that was about the other day?"

It was Monday; Holly was at school, Glen was at work and Ashley had decided that it was the perfect time to confront her sister over her bafflingly bitter attitude towards her boyfriend.

"What?" Kyla asked stubbornly, as she unpacked the dishwasher, even though she knew exactly what Ashley was talking about.

Ashley shot her a withering glare but still elaborated. "What did Glen do to piss you off so much?" she asked, then put up her hands to stop Kyla before she had a chance to reply. "You know what, I don't even care what he did, you shouldn't be talking shit about him in front of Holly."

Kyla angrily slammed the dishwasher shut. "Are you seriously trying to give me parenting advice? You?"

Her jaw clenched but Ashley managed to keep her cool. "I'm just saying that I know what it's like to have your mom constantly trashing your dad in front of you. And let me tell you, Ky, it's not exactly pleasant."

"Thanks for comparing me to Christine, Ashley. Really, thank you."

"Way to avoid the issue," Ashley commented, getting up to look for something to eat in Kyla's fridge.

"I'm not avoiding anything," Kyla denied.

"Sure, you're not." Ashley went about collecting the ingredients to make herself a turkey sandwich.

"What the hell, Ashley, does Spencer not feed you or something?"

"Oh no, Spencer makes sure I eat just fine," Ashley said, waggling her eyebrows while Kyla pretended to gag. "And stop trying to distract me by talking about Spencer, it's not going to work."

"It does every other time," Kyla mumbled. Spencer was Ashley's favorite subject.

"Anyway, I don't get why you're so down on Glen all of a sudden."

"He cheated on me."

"No, he didn't," Ashley denied instantly. _Glen wouldn't do that. He adores her.  
_  
"Yes, he did."

"And how do you know, did you smell another woman's perfume on his shirt? Did he have lipstick on his collar?" Ashley didn't mean to sound like a bitch but she knew what a drama queen Kyla could be and how she easily she could blow things out of proportion.

"He told me."

"Oh." That well and truly took the wind out of Ashley's sails. "What happened?"

"You remember how he had to go to Chicago for that conference on the new liquor laws or whatever?"

"Yeah," Ashley said, taking a bite of her newly made sandwich.

"Well, we fought before he left and that night he got drunk in the bar and slept with some random ho, he doesn't even remember her name." Kyla shrugged. "He feels really bad about it and he told me the minute he got home. So now we're just trying to work things out."

"You could have told me, you know," Ashley said, far more sympathetic now that she knew the full story.

"And have you murder Glen? I don't really think Spencer would be very happy with you if you did that."

"I'm not going to kill him."

"What about maiming? You're not going to maim him are you?" Kyla asked cautiously.

"No maiming, I swear," Ashley promised. "Unless you want me to hurt him."

"I don't and don't go telling Spencer either. Glen and I want to work this out ourselves."

Ashley grimaced. "I don't know if I can keep it a secret from Spencer, she has a way of getting things out of me. See, there's this thing she does with her tongue-"

"Just try. Please?"

"Okay…do you need a hug?" she asked, opening her arms to her sister.

"…No."

-

After another hour of talking the situation over with Kyla, Ashley finally arrived home.

"Hey Barney," she greeted her old dog who was curled up in his bed. He offered a weak wag of his tail in return. He would've gotten up but the arthritis had really done a number on his hip joints.

She moved through the house in search of her wife and found Spencer bent over in Declan's room, sorting through his laundry hamper. It was an opportunity that Ashley could not resist.

She snuck behind Spencer and slapped her hard on the ass.

"Jesus!" Spencer exclaimed, whirling around and smacking Ashley in the shoulder.

"No, just Ashley."

"Funny."

"I thought so," she said, wrapping her arms around Spencer. "Where's Dec?"

"Mom and Dad came by to take him to the zoo."

"He got to go to the zoo?" Ashley pouted. "I want to go to the zoo."

"Aww, poor baby," Spencer teased, pinching Ashley's cheek. "We can go another time."

Ashley nodded once, deeming this acceptable. "So we have the house to ourselves…"

"That we do and after I put on this load of washing, we will be taking full advantage of that fact."

"Sexy."

Spencer smirked. "I thought so."

_She's so cute when she steals my jokes._

"So did Kyla tell you what's going on with her and Glen?"

"Ahhh, yeah, it's just a little fight, nothing for us to worry about," lied Ashley.

Spencer stared at her and Ashley started shifting uncomfortably under her scrutinizing gaze. "You're lying."

"Spence, it's really none of our business-"

"Oh my god, he cheated on her!" Spencer concluded.

"How did you do that!?!" Ashley squealed, jumping guiltily.

"It doesn't matter how I did it. I can't believe him-"

"Spence, stop. This is between him and Kyla," Ashley said, taking Spencer by the shoulders to stop her from running off to give her brother a piece of her mind. "Look, it was one night stand and he doesn't even remember the girl's name."

Spencer stepped back out of her reach, not liking what she was hearing. "And that makes it okay?"

"No. But it was just sex." Honestly, Ashley would've been more pissed at Glen if he had carried out an emotional affair because, for her, sex and love were two completely different things. She could understand loving someone without ever having sex with them and she could understand having sex with someone without ever loving them…or knowing their name. But for Spencer, love and sex very much went hand in hand.

"What, so you think it'd be okay for you to do that to me?"

"No!" Ashley denied vehemently, she's rather never have sex again than do it with someone that wasn't Spencer. "But come on, if Kyla was my girlfriend, I would cheat on her too." …_I should not have said that,_ Ashley thought, watching Spencer's face darken at her ill advised joke.

"I can't believe you."

"Spence-"

"Don't. Don't talk to me," Spencer hissed, gathering up the laundry basket in preparation of her angry walkout. "I don't even want to hear your voice right now."

Ashley took a step back as Spencer brushed past her on her way out and was left looking after her retreating wife like a lost puppy. "Stupid!" she growled, smacking herself in the forehead.

Now she'd have to come up with an apology so adorable that Spencer would have no choice but to forgive her. She looked around the room for inspiration and smirked when her gaze settled on the crayons and blank sheets of paper that had been left out on Declan's desk.

-

Still fuming, Spencer went about unloading the washing machine with unnecessary force. She couldn't believe how cavalier Ashley was being towards Glen's cheating, especially considering their own history with the subject.

Slamming the door to the now empty washing machine shut, she turned around and was startled to find Ashley standing silently in the doorway, looking contrite. "I really don't want to hear it right now, Ash."

Ashley nodded, keeping her mouth shut and sauntered into the 'small' room (that was at least twice as large as the average laundry), she stopped in front of Spencer and cleared her throat. She brought the hand she had previously kept hidden behind her back to the fore.

"What is this?"

Ashley gestured for her to read from the first in the stack of papers she was holding up in front of her.

"I know you don't want to hear what I have to say," Spencer read off the first card, amusement starting to creep into her voice, mostly due to the fact that it was written in purple crayon and Ashley had the handwriting of a ten year old. Ashley flipped to the next card. "So this way you can just read it for yourself." Spencer started to smile. "Ash-"

Ashley shook her head, her brown eyes twinkling, and moved onto the next card.

"I'm sorry that I was so insensitive," Spencer read, ignoring that Ashley had spelt insensitive wrong. "That I didn't sea-" _Sea? Really? Thank god for spell check, I guess._ "how this was affecting you." Another card. "I was wrong to say what I said and I can only hope that one day." Another card. "After many backrubs and orgasms, you can find it in your kind and generous heart to forgive me." Ashley flipped it over to the final card. "So can I please talk to you now because not being able to is torture." Spencer laughed and took Ashley's hands in her own. "Yes, you can talk now."

"Thank god, being quiet sucks!" Ashley said, breaking out into a relieved smile, then she got serious. "I really am sorry, Spence, I was being an idiot."

"You were," she agreed, happily allowing her wife to embrace her. "But you're right, it's none of our business and we should stay out of it. Especially if we're going to fight about it."

"That's what I was trying to say…so," Ashley began, moving in for a kiss. "How about we get started on those apology orgasms before Dec gets home?"

"Sounds good," Spencer moaned in between kisses as Ashley backed her up against the dryer.

_Yay! I get make up sex!_ Ashley thought giddily, bunching Spencer's dress up around the blonde's hips.

"Momma, what are you doing to Mommy?"  
_  
Or not._ Their heads turned in unison to find their little boy staring at them with wide blue eyes. "Well," Ashley sighed in frustration. "I was about to have sex with her but now you're home so I guess that's off the table." She chanced a look at Spencer. "Right?"

"Yes," Spencer said, blushing and pulling her dress down to cover her thighs. She moved collect Declan, brushing past Ashley on the way to whisper, "For now."

TBC


	6. Good To Go

**New OCs - Chloe Sinclair played by Pippa Black, Cedric Marshall played by Tristan Wilds and Sierra Reynolds played by Nikki Reed.**

-

**Chapter 6 - Good To Go**

Ashley awoke to the feeling of tiny hands smooshing her face. Cracking one eye open, she saw her son's grinning face peering down at her. She screwed her face up and growled, delighting in Declan's childish giggles.

"What time is it?" she asked groggily, still in the process of waking up.

"After ten, I figured after last night you deserved to sleep in," Spencer answered. Ashley had more than made up for the events of yesterday. "But now your son wants to watch a movie with you."

"That so?" Ashley lifted Declan off her waist so she could sit up.

"Yup," he said firmly, helping Ashley to push the blankets back so she could get out of bed.

"And what do you want to watch?"

Declan's thinking face looked remarkably like his mother's. "I dunno," he finally answered.

"Well, why don't you go pick one out while I jump in the shower. Okay?"

Declan nodded eagerly and took off, doing his best roadrunner impression as his socked feet slid on the polished wooden floor.

"You want me to get you some breakfast?" Spencer offered.

"Yes, please," Ashley yawned, rubbing her stiff jaw.

"Captain Crunch or Froot Loops?"

"I think you already know the answer to that, Spence."

_  
Froot Loops it is._

-

Declan had chosen to watch The Land Before Time XXIII, which sucked for Ashley because Duckie's voice made her want to stab herself in the face. She would much rather watch Jurassic Park but Spencer said that Declan was too young for that. So she was relieved when her phone started ringing in the middle of the movie.

"It's work," she announced, checking the screen. "I have to take this." She transferred Declan to Spencer's lap and stepped outside their home theatre room to answer the call.

"Chloe, you do remember that I'm on vacation, don't you?"

"Believe me, I wouldn't be bothering you if it wasn't an emergency," Chloe, her assistant at the label, said. "Sierra Reynolds."

Ashley cringed. "What about her?"

"Cedric, I don't know how, but he managed to destroy the masters of the album. We need your copies, can you send them in?"

"Sure." It was an easy enough ask. Except… "Oh shit."

"I hate when you say that," sighed Chloe, knowing that something bad was coming.

"They were on my old laptop." The one that had to be replaced after she Declan had spilled apple juice all over it. "The hard drive was trashed and the data was too corrupted for the tech to recover." Ashley groaned. "I guess that we'll just have to get her in the studio again."

It was not something that either woman looked forward to. Sierra Reynolds' style was best described as music to slit your wrists to.

"She's on tour," Chloe pointed out, checking the dates on her PDA. "And she will be for the next six weeks. We can't wait six weeks, Ashley. The label wants this album out on time, they've spent way too much on advertising it."

"Fuck!" Ashley hissed, running her hand through her hair. "Okay, um, when's her longest tour stop? Preferably three days or more."

"She's scheduled to be in New York for four days."

"When?"

"She arrives tomorrow."

"I guess that we're just going to have to fly out there then." Ashley was resigned to her fate. "We'll have to use the band she's got on tour with her, can you get a studio booked out there on such short notice?" It was a stupid question, Chloe Sinclair was the best assistant a girl could ask for, there was nothing that she couldn't do.

"Of course I can."

"And get seats for you, me and Cedric on the first flight out from LAX tomorrow?"

"Sure," Chloe said, already looking up flight times. "Wait, you actually want Cedric to come?"

"Hey, he made this mess, he's going to help clean it up."

-

"So what was that phone call about?" Spencer asked, once the movie was over. When Ashley had rejoined them, it was obvious that something was bothering the older woman.

"It was Chloe…I have to go to New York for a couple of days."

"What? I thought you were on vacation."

"I am. But my idiot intern destroyed the only copy of Sierra Reynolds' new album and the label are refusing to push back the release date. It sucks but I have to go."

"No, I get it." She just didn't like it. The best thing about Ashley's job was that it allowed her to stay in LA and have the artists come to her, rather than her travelling all the time. "When?"

"Tomorrow," Ashley said miserably.

Spencer's eyes widened in surprise. "Tomorrow?"

"I'm catching the first flight out in the morning. I should only be gone four days, at the most, I promise."

"I hate it when we're apart," Spencer mumbled. She didn't care if it sounded ever so slightly pathetic. It was true.

"Not as much as I do," Ashley said, cupping her wife's cheeks. "You know that if I didn't have to-"

"I know."

"Well, I so don't feeling like cooking now. How about we go out for dinner?"

"Pizza at Uncle Glen's?" Declan piped up from between them.

"Sure, Dec, we can get pizza." She noticed Spencer's frown. "Well you're going to have to see him eventually and remember how we agreed that we're not getting involved in their drama, you're not even supposed to know."

"Yeah, I guess." _I hate it when she makes sense._

-

"So there's something that I want to talk to you about before I have to leave," Ashley said, as they were getting ready to go out to dinner.

"Don't worry, I won't say anything to Glen while you're gone." Spencer barely looked up from lacing up her red Chucks.

"That's not what I meant." She finished brushing her hair and sat down on the bed next to her wife. "Now that you've had sometime to think about it, I was just wanted to know what you wanted to do about the whole baby thing."

"I've been thinking about it a lot," Spencer began slowly, sitting up. "I don't think that we should do it."

"Are you serious?" For the past year all Spencer wanted was to have another child and now they had the perfect opportunity to do it, she was turning it down?

"It shouldn't be this hard, Ash. It's like God doesn't want us to have any more kids."

"Oh, fuck that. God can blow me."

"Ashley!" Spencer gasped.

"No, Spence, if God didn't want us to have anymore kids then this technology wouldn't even exist." She took Spence's hands in her own and forced her to look at her. "Don't try and hide behind that, what's the real reason?"

"Look, I know that you don't really want to have another baby and it feels selfish to want you to go through some awful, painful procedure just because I want to have one."

"It's not selfish. And to be honest, I've kind of come around to the idea of having another kid. And I want Dec to have a sibling." Ashley knew that she had always wanted one when she was a kid. "Plus, I've gotten a lot better with kids than I was when he was a baby."

"You're not just saying this because you think it's what I want to hear, are you?" Spencer asked, her blue eyes narrowing as she tried to figure Ashley out.

"No," Ashley answered earnestly. "I want to have another baby with you. I want it to be part of both of us and if it means me having a sore back for a couple of days, then so be it. I don't care because I know that it'll be worth it."

"You really want this?" Spencer whispered, tears forming in her eyes.

"I really, really do," Ashley said without a hint of hesitation. "And when I get back we'll start looking at potential surrogates, alright?"

Spencer nodded and lent her forehead against her wife's. "We're going to have another baby," she very nearly sobbed with happiness.

"And it's going to be the best looking kid ever!"

TBC


	7. You Can't Be Missed If You Never Go Away

**Chapter 7 - You Can't Be Missed If You Never Go Away**

**-  
**

"Hey Spence," Glen greeted his sister, as she walked through the doors of his dining establishment, oblivious to her newly found hostility towards him.

"I'm not talking to you," Spencer snapped, brushing past him and taking Declan with her to find a table.

"Hi Glen," Ashley, however, was a lot more civil.

"What's up her ass?" Glen whispered to Ashley as Spencer continued to give him the stinkeye from afar.

Ashley nodded towards the kitchen. "Can we talk in private?"

"Sure."

They were barely through the swinging door when Ashley dropped the bomb. "I told her about how you cheated on Kyla."

"You know about that!?!" Glen yelped, quickly moving a nearby block of knives out of Ashley's reach. "I was drunk and upset and it was all a horrible, horrible mistake."

"Glen, it's okay."

Glen looked at her like a wounded animal that was being offered help from the person who'd shot it. "It is?"

"I mean, I'm not condoning it or anything and if you ever do it again I really will use one of those knives to cut your balls off. But if Kyla can forgive you then I can too."

He practically fainted with relief. He'd seen Ashley in action before and he never wanted to be on the receiving end of her rage. "Oh, thank god."

"And I promised Kyla that I wasn't going to interfere but I have to say something, I know that you guys are trying to work things out and I think that's great but I just hope that you're doing it for the right reasons."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that I hope your not just staying together for Holly's sake. I know that sounds kind of harsh but if you are then you're not going to be doing her any favors. If you don't want to be with Kyla-"

"But I do!" Glen declared passionately. "I want to marry her!"

"So ask her then."

"Yeah, cause that worked out so well for me the first two times." Glen had asked Kyla to marry him twice. Once before Holly was born and then again immediately after, only to be shot down each time. It was no wonder the poor guy was a little gunshy. "Besides, I can't really ask her again now, can I."

_That's true, if he asks her to marry him again now it'll just look like he's trying to make up for cheating on her._ "Dude...I don't know what to tell you. Kyla's crazy." The reason Kyla refused to marry the father of her child was a source of much head scratching amongst the collective Carlin/Davies/Woods clan and Kyla had never offered an explanation for it.

"You don't have to tell me that."

Ashley sighed and leaned back again the counter. Dealing with other people's problems was so exhausting, she didn't know how Dr. Phil did it.

"I don't want to sound like I putting any of the blame on her, cause I'm not," Glen began. "But the whole reason that we fought before I left for Chicago is because I wanted to know what she wanted out of this relationship."

Ashley frowned. Kyla had never told her this part of the story. "So what did she say?"

"She got pissed, said that she was happy with the way things were, and didn't know why they had to change." Glen rubbed a hand across his tired face. "It just feels like we're frozen in place, we're not moving forward, we're not going anywhere."

"Well, you just having to keep trying," Ashley offered helplessly. "Maybe spending a little less time here and a little more at home."

"I really can't afford to do that right now." And believe him, if he could, he would.

Ashley shrugged, she was all out of ideas then. "Look, do you want me to try and talk some sense into Kyla for you-"

"No, no. That's okay. It'd probably just make her feel like everybody's ganging up on her."

"Okay, well, if there's anything else I can do to help."

"Thanks, Ash, you know, for not killing me and all."

"No problem," she said humbly, turning to go before something suddenly occurred to her. "Oh, hey, tell your cook to put extra pickles on my burger. He totally skimped out last time."

"But you hate pickles." Ashley constantly ordering extra pickles on her food was a practice that had always confused him.

"Yeah, but Spencer likes to take them off when she thinks I'm not looking," she explained with a cheeky grin. "It makes her feel like she's taking care of me."

Glen chuckled, shaking his head, in a kind of awe. "You two are unbelievable."

"I know," Ashley smirked, exiting the kitchen to go and locate the rest of her family.

-

"I can't believe that you're taking his side," Spencer said once Ashley had found them and taken her seat at their table. "Kyla's your sister."

"I'm not on anybody's side, we agreed that we weren't going to take sides, remember?"

"But he cheated on your sister," Spencer hissed softly while covering Declan's ears. "And now you're palling around with him like nothing has happened."

"I really don't think that you should be so hard on him, Spence, it's a complicated situation and neither of us know the full story. They're trying to work things out and stay together and I think that we should be supporting them in that, rather than passing out blame."

"You're right," Spencer sighed, swayed by Ashley's surprisingly mature take on the situation. "But it doesn't mean that I approve of what he did."

"I don't either but it happened and there's nothing that anybody can do about it now. So can we please just let this go and enjoy our dinner?"

"Sure," Spencer agreed, examining her menu. "Dec's going to have some cheese pizza. What are you going to have?"

"I'll probably just get a cheeseburger," Ashley said, not even bothering to look at her menu.

"I hope they don't put pickles on it again, I don't know why they keep doing that."

"I don't either, babe."

-

"Momma," Declan said, poking his sleeping mother's face to try and get her to wake up.

"Whastha matter, Dec?" Ashley mumbled, still a little more than half asleep.

"I feel sick."

Ashley forced herself to open her eyes and turned on her bedside light to get a better look at her little boy. "Where do you feel sick, baby?"

"In my tummy," he said, looking utterly miserable as he stood with his arms huddled around his midsection.

"Do you want to sleep in here with us?" Spencer asked, having been awoken by their voices.

Declan nodded and clambered over Ashley to settle down under the blankets in between them.

"I'll go and get you some water and a bucket in case you feel like puking," said Ashley, looking at the clock. It was 5:14 and they had only made it to sleep less than an hour before hand.

"Already did."

"Where did you throw up, Dec?"

"In my bed," he admitted in a small voice.

"Fantastic," Ashley whispered sarcastically. "Okay, I'll go and clean it up-"

"Ash, I can do it," Spencer offered but Ashley shook her head. There was no point in both of them being deprived of sleep.

"No, you stay here with Dec, I have to start getting ready to catch my flight in like an hour anyway, so I may as well just stay up. I can sleep on the plane." Ashley got out of bed and tucked the covers back in around her ill son then kissed him tenderly on the forehead. "I'll be back in a minute with your water. You want anything else?"

Declan shook his head, burrowing in against Spencer's warm body.

"I'll be right back," she repeated and headed for the bathroom.

Ashley cracked her stiff neck as she turned on the light and yawned. She so didn't envy whoever had to deal with her in the morning.

-

"I hate having to leave when he's sick," Ashley said, stroking Declan's cheek as he sullenly snuggled himself against Spencer. He was a shadow of his usual happy self.

"I'll make an appointment at the doctor's but I think it's probably just a stomach bug," Spencer tried to reassure her. She knew how much Ashley hated leaving them and knew that this was only making it that much harder for her.

"'Kay," Ashley whispered and wrapped her arms around the both of them. She was due to be picked up in less than five minutes and was trying to make the most out the time she had left with them. "I'll miss you."

"Miss you too, Momma," Declan mustered up the will to say.

Outside a horn honked, signalling her limo's arrival.

"They're early, I'd better go. I'll call you as soon as I land in New York and if you need me just call and I'll be on the first flight home."

"Got it," Spencer said, knowing that not a word of what her wife was saying was a lie.

"Take care of my baby," Ashley said as they walked to the door.

Spencer looked down at the small boy in her arms. "Don't worry, he'll be fine."

"Well, I was talking about my car," Ashley joked, referring to her ridiculously flashy and expensive yellow Lotus Elise that she used for 'work'. Ashley had justified it's purchase by quite rightly saying that she was Ashley Davies and she couldn't just roll up to work in a station wagon with a child seat in the back, even if it was an Audi. "But that's nice to know."

Spencer laughed, slapping her wife's arm. "Get out of here, they're waiting for you."

Ashley pressed her lips to Spencer's in a fiery kiss. "Love you," she uttered huskily, keeping their faces close. "Don't forget about me while I'm gone."

"I couldn't if I tried," Spencer swore, close to losing herself in Ashley's expressive brown eyes.

"Good to know," Ashley said softly, then moved to kiss the top of Declan's head. "You be good for your mommy."

"I will."

"Okay." Ashley gathered up her carry on luggage and opened the door. "Bye," she mumbled, heading out the door. She was terrible at goodbyes.

Opening the door to the limo, Ashley looked back while Cedric scurried out to put her bags in the trunk. She gave a quick wave back to her family that was whole heartedly returned, even Declan managed to move his little hand weakly.

The limo wasn't even halfway down the street when Spencer's phone beeped alerting her to a new message. She flipped it open and wasn't surprised to find that it was a message from Ashley that simply said 'missing u alredy'.

-

TBC


	8. Picture Of Success

**Chapter 8 - Picture Of Success**

The Davies' pediatrician, Dr. Kline, was one of the best and therefore, one of the most in demand, and it turned out that Spencer couldn't get an appointment for another two days.

So instead she brought Declan around to see his grandmother, who concluded that Spencer had been right about it being a stomach virus, and prescribed plenty of fluids and rest. Having a doctor in the family certainly paid off sometimes.

So Declan was sacked out on the couch in his Superman pajamas while his mother and grandmother chatted over coffee and cookies in the kitchen.

"I remember when you were six and you caught a bug. You threw up all over Glen in the car and thought that it was the funniest thing in the world," Paula reminisced.

Spencer cringed in embarrassment, even though she had no memory of the incident. "Mom," she groaned.

"Oh, that's nothing compared to what your brother did. Do you remember when he vomited in church?"

"Yes." Spencer smirked, remembering how they had been in the front row and in the middle of communion when Glen had blown chunks all over the priest. She teased him about it for weeks and only stopped after he beat up Tommy Sanders after he'd pulled really hard on her pigtails.

"Speaking of Glen, Spence, do you know what's going on with your brother? Arthur says that he's been a little out of it at work." Paula hated to have to say this but considering Glen's history. "He's not on drugs again, is he?"

"No! No. It's nothing like that."

"Well, what is it?"

As much as she disapproved of her big brother's indiscretion, Spencer wasn't about to rat him out to their parents. "He's just having some problems with Kyla, that's all. I'm sure they'll figure it all out."

"I hope so," Paula said with concern. "They have Holly to think about. I still don't know why they haven't gotten married."

"It's not like Glen hasn't tried, Mom," Spencer defended him. "Kyla's the one that doesn't want to be tied down or whatever."

Spencer's phone vibrated on the table and she wasted no time in checking her messages. Whenever they were apart, Ashley had gotten into the habit of sending Spencer random cat macros and pictures of herself, just so that she'd know that Ashley was thinking of her while she was away.

"Ashley?" Paula asked, amused by the goofy smile that threatened to overtake her daughter's face.

Spencer nodded, giggling, and showed her the ridiculous picture that was splashed across the screen of her phone.

"That girl is so odd," Paula chuckled.

"It really is part of her charm." Spencer found Ashley's oddness endearing. Actually, she found pretty much everything about Ashley to be endearing. On the day that they married, she had thought that she couldn't possibly fall anymore in love with Ashley than she already was, but she quickly found that she had been so very wrong.

"You know, when you two were in high school, I could never understand what you saw in her. But now I do."

"Mom, are you trying to tell me that you're in love with my wife?" Spencer deadpanned.

"No," Paula laughed at the absurdity of the suggestion. _Well, maybe a little bit._

"Good because you're my mom and I'd hate to have to beat you down."

Paula looked at Spencer challengingly. She loved her daughter but there was no way that she couldn't beat her in a fight. Spencer couldn't fight her way out of a paper bag.

"I could!" Spencer pouted. If Ashley was the prize then she would go ten rounds with Mike Tyson. Provided, of course, that she was wearing protective coverings for her ears.

"I'm sure you could, sweetheart," Paula said, patting her daughter's hand condescendingly.

Spencer scowled and took a disgruntled bite of her cookie. It wasn't her fault that she was more of a lover than a fighter. She didn't need to fight, she had Ashley to protect her.

"Mom, do you know anything about the procedures they do at the Lakehurst Institute?" she asked, finally bringing up something that she'd had on her mind ever since she'd arrived at her parent's home.

Paula smiled, her eyes twinkling. "Does this mean that I'm going to have another grandchild?"

"I'm just curious," Spencer said, ducking her head. She didn't want to say anything until their plans were a little more definite.

"Okay, well which procedure are you curious about?"

"The bone marrow harvesting, what exactly would be involved in that?"

"It's a fairly simple operation, Ashley would be unconscious for a few hours while doctors removed bone marrow from her hip bones with a surgical needle."

"Why do you assume it would be Ashley having it done?"

"Because I know that she wouldn't let you go through an operation like that." After witnessing what Ashley had been like when Spencer was in hospital while pregnant, Paula had no doubts about that.

Spencer nodded, relenting. "Would it be very painful for her, you know, afterwards?" she inquired.

"Most patients experience pain in their lower back for a couple of days, there will be bruising and the bone marrow can take four to six weeks to grow back." Paula leaned forward on the table. "You know, Ashley's not the only one who'll have to experience some discomfort for this to happen." She didn't want to scare her daughter off but she wanted to make sure that she knew exactly what she would be getting herself into.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that having your eggs harvested isn't exactly the most pleasant experience in the world and you'd have to inject yourself with drugs to make you hyper ovulate for at least two weeks before hand."

"After everything I went through with Dec I think that I can handle that."

As if summoned by his name, Declan came padding into the kitchen, his little hands rubbing at his tired eyes.

"Mommy, I thirsty," he said, hugging Spencer's leg.

"I'll get you some orange juice," said Paula, getting up.

"You want to see what your Momma sent?" Spencer asked, pulling him up so he could settle in her lap. She reopened the message and handed the phone to her son.

Declan giggled at the humorous image of an extremely ugly wet cat. "Momma's silly!" he squealed happily.

"Yes, she is." She held up the phone to take her own picture to send to her wife. "Smile, Dec."

-

In the interest of saving time and money, Ashley went straight from the airport to the studio to get a head start on laying down the instruments. Instead of wasting time using the musicians from Sierra's tour band, she played each one herself, with Cedric behind the soundboard recording, and then layered it all together once she was finished.

"Sierra's on her way over," Chloe's voice floated into the room through the speakers on the wall.

Ashley nodded, setting the guitar aside and stretching out her aching fingers. Having co-written every single song on the album had given her the advantage of knowing them note for note, inside and out, making it easy for her to get each individual instrument down in only a few takes.

"Boss, don't you think you should take a break?" Cedric asked her as she stepped through the door into the sound engineering booth where he'd been working. "We've been going for six hours straight."

Ashley drained her water bottle and handed it off to Chloe for her to go and refill. "Yeah, well the sooner we get this done, the sooner I can go home."

"Look, I'm really sorry about the masters, I don't know how it happened."

She looked at Cedric's apologetic face. She believed him, he was a sweet guy with a lot of potential who just happened to extremely clumsy. "Cedric, it's...well, it's not fine but there's no use on dwelling on it."

It didn't stop him from feeling bad about it, especially now that he knew that his boss had to leave her sick kid because of him.

"I can't believe that I have to do this all again," a female's voice could be heard whining out in the hall. "This is so unprofessional."

"She'd be the expert on that," Cedric muttered, making Ashley smirk. She knew that there was a reason she liked this kid.

"Sierra," she greeted the young singer who'd just waltzed in through the door.

"Ashley," she purred, surprising the older brunette with a hug. "It's good to see you again."

"Too bad about the circumstances," Ashley said, disentangling herself. "You remember Cedric?"

"Of course." Sierra turned her nose up dismissively at him and turned her full attention back to Ashley. "I'm actually kind of glad this happened, see I wrote this song the other night and I really want it on the album." She pulled a crumpled sheet of paper out of her giant purse and handed it to Ashley.

"Um…" Ashley hummed as she read it over it was the typical depressingly maudlin crap that Sierra Reynolds was famous for_ "I love you, you're perfect, I'm not good enough for you"…Christ, pass me a bucket._ "You know that I was hired to try and move you away from the overly emo and obsessive stalker-ish tone that your last album had, right?"

"I don't know why," Sierra said, her face darkening. "Everybody loved my last album."

_Two people killed themselves while listening to it. It wasn't that great._ "I know but you can't just do the same thing all the time. You need to evolve as an artist."

"I want this song on the album," Sierra put her foot down.

"The track listings have already been published, we can't change them now," Chloe advised them.

Sierra did not react well to insubordinates telling her what she could and could not do. "I'm not recording anything else until you agree to put it on the album."

Ashley groaned and pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to fight off the beginnings of a headache. "Okay, okay," she agreed. "Maybe we can use it as a bonus track. Cedric can record it after we're done with the original songs."

"I can?" "Him?" Cedric and Sierra said at the same time.

"Sure." Ashley took her seat in front of the soundboard, clearly ready to get down to business. "He needs the experience and I need to sleep. Either he records it or it doesn't get recorded at all."

"Fine," Sierra bit out through gritted teeth and stormed out of the booth and into the studio.

"Are you really going to let her use that as a bonus track?" Chloe asked, now that Sierra was out of earshot.

"Hell no."

"So why do I have to record it?" Cedric queried, scratching his bald head.

"Like I said you need the experience," Ashley explained, tapping a few keys on her computer then getting up to clap him on the shoulder. "Besides, I'm hoping some of your overwhelming optimism will rub off on her."

She turned to have a quiet discussion with her assistant, leaving Cedric to ponder whether that was a compliment or not.

-

"Sierra!" Ashley yelled through the intercom into the studio. "Get off your fucking phone!"

They'd been at it for two hours and had barely managed to complete two songs. The second Ashley had called for a coffee break, Sierra was on her phone. "But it's my boyfriend, I haven't talked to him in forever!"

"She was just on the phone to him before she came into the studio," Chloe quietly informed Ashley.

Ashley rolled her eyes and hit the intercom button again. "I don't give a shit. I had to leave my wife and sick son to be here. So either hang up the phone and sing or I'll scrap your whole album."

"You can't do that!" Sierra shot back.

"I'm Ashley Davies, I can do what ever I fucking want." Jetlagged, sleep deprived, missing Spencer and worried about Declan, Ashley was not in the mood to screw around.

Glaring at Ashley through the soundproof glass, Sierra quickly ended the call. Then went to her microphone and sulkily the jammed her headphones down over her ears.

Ashley looked over to Cedric. "I hope you're taking notes, Ced. You're going to be dealing with this yourself in a couple of hours."

Cedric gulped and looked to Chloe for reassurance. But she had none to offer. She knew that Ashley hated to have to do this to a sweet guy like Cedric but if he wanted to make it in this industry, he'd have to learn to deal with difficult musicians.

"Let's take it again from the top."

TBC


	9. Home Is Where The Heart Is

**Chapter 9 - Home Is Where The Heart Is**

"Do you want me to wake him up to help with your stuff?" Chloe asked, nudging Cedric who was curled up asleep on one of the bench seats of the limo, as it pulled up outside Ashley's home.

Cedric just mumbled something about killer ducks and rolled over.

"No. Let him sleep. I've got it," Ashley said, half asleep herself. "Thanks for all your help, Chlo."

"It's kind of my job, Ash," the blonde pointed out.

"I know but you have definitely gone above and beyond these past couple of days. Both of you. I'm going to make sure that you both get big bonuses this year."

"Oh, that's not necessary." Chloe was already very well paid and had the pleasure of working for one of the best bosses in the industry. She'd seen the way that some of the other producers treated their assistants and knew how lucky she'd been when she was hired by Ashley and she was thankful for it.

"Yes, it is," Ashley said firmly, leaving no room for argument. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get inside and sleep with my wife."

Chloe gave her a mock salute as Ashley exited the limo.

-

Ashley was sure that she made a supremely dignified picture, dragging her suitcases along the lawn in the middle of the night, but was way past caring. She shoved her key in the lock and practically collapsed through the doorway when the door opened.

"Shhh," Ashley sushed Barney as his big head came up and he let out a half heated growl at the unexpected sound of the front door opening in the middle of the night. "It's just me, Barney Boo."

She left her luggage by the door, too tired to try and drag it all the way up the stairs in the darkness. It was late and when she had left New York it had been even later.

Ashley climbed the stairs, clumsily stripping off her clothes as she went. By the time she reached the second floor she was left only in her underwear. She walked into the master bedroom and found Spencer had already fallen asleep on top of the covers, with the bedside light still on and surrounded by print outs.

Discarding her clothes into the nearby hamper, Ashley took a seat on the side of the bed and took the paper out of Spencer's hand, that was about to drop from her loose grip.

Spencer grunted, sensing the unexpected presence of another person, she struggled to open her eyes. "Ash?" she asked huskily, wondering if she was really still asleep. It wouldn't be the first time she'd dreamed of Ashley in her underwear, that happened with an embarrassing frequency.

"Yeah, it's me."

"I thought you weren't supposed to be coming home until tomorrow." Spencer shifted on the bed, trying to wake herself up a little more.

"I wasn't but I couldn't take spending another night away from you, so I caught the red eye home," Ashley said, kissing the back of the hand she was holding. "How's Dec?"

"Better." Spencer smiled. "He's been asking when you were going to come home to play dinosaurs with him."

"Really?"

Spencer nodded, she didn't know why Ashley sounded so surprised by this. She had to know that Declan adored her. "Not that I'm complaining but how did you make it back so soon? Did you get the album finished already?"

"Most of it." It had only taken her two days to do what usually took her a month or more. It was amazing what Ashley could achieve once she set her mind to it. "There's just a bit of tweaking left to do but I can take care of that here."

"Good," Spencer said, squeezing Ashley's hand.

"So what are all these?" Ashley asked, gesturing to all the papers strewn across the bed.

"Potential surrogates, I figured I'd get a head start."

"Ah." Ashley took a closer look at the paper she still had in her hand. "This one's had eleven kids!" she exclaimed, her eyes going wide. "Her vag must be like a waterslide!"

"Ashley!" Spencer giggled, turning red.

"No, seriously, think of the woman's poor husband. Sex must be like throwing a hotdog down a hallway for him."

"That's disgusting," Spencer said and wrinkled her nose up. She reached out and caressed Ashley's face. "You look tired."

"I am tired." At her estimate, she'd only managed about a total of twelve hours sleep over the past three days. "Now that I'm home, I'm going to sleep for an entire week straight."

"I think that your son might have something to say about that," Spencer chuckled, moving to collect the scattered papers so that Ashley could lay down. "Are you going to get changed?"

Ashley shook her head and flopped down on the bed, carelessly tossing her glasses onto the bedside table. "Can't move, too tired."

Spencer laughed at her and moved to the closet to get changed into her pajamas, dropping the stack of papers onto her desk on the way. "At least get under the covers. You'll catch a cold."

"Don't care," the brunette mumbled into her pillow.

Abandoning her own efforts to change into her sleepwear, Spencer went to the bed and rearranged her wife's limp body until it was under the covers.

"Thank you," Ashley muttered. "You're a good wife. I always knew you would be." She caught Spencer's hand and tried to pull her down onto the bed with her. "Come cuddle."

"I have to finish getting changed."

Ashley forced her eyes open for a second to see that Spencer was only wearing her t-shirt and boy shorts. "You're fine. Come on, I missed you."

"Okay, okay," Spencer relented, throwing back the covers and curling up behind her wife, awkwardly trying to find a position that was comfortable for both of them. All these years later and she still hadn't learned how to be the big spoon.

"Roll over," Ashley ordered, much to Spencer's relief.

She hummed happily as she turned over and felt Ashley's body mold itself to her back. "Hey Ash?"

"Hmm?"

"I missed you too."

-

"This one's out," Ashley announced, screwing up the paper she'd been looking at and tossing it into the waste paper basket. After sleeping for a solid ten hours, she was feeling much better and was helping Spencer sort through the potential candidates to carry their baby, while Declan colored nearby.

"What, why?"

"Because she's a florist," she said, as if it explained everything.

"And why is that a bad thing?"

"Because florists are unstable, everybody knows that," Ashley informed her wife, speaking very matter of factly. "It's all the pollen, it makes them crazy."

"Sure," Spencer agreed, not even bothering to try and argue with the brunette. "So what's your excuse?" she asked with a cheeky grin. "Spend a lot of time in the greenhouse when you were a kid?"

"It was the only place that my nanny couldn't find me. I'd spend hours hiding from her in there," Ashley answered with raw sincerity.

"Oh." She really should've learned her lesson about joking about Ashley's childhood, she never knew when her slightly outrageous suggestions about it would turn out to be true. "Well, how about this one? Eve Jacobsen?"

Ashley took one look at the accompanying photo and shook her head. "She looks shifty."

"Okay." After what they'd been through in Boston, Spencer had learned to trust Ashley's instincts implicitly. So she put Eve in the 'No' pile.

Ashley sighed; this was boring and pointless. She was never going to learn enough about these women from a stupid questionnaire they'd filled out -and probably lied on- to trust them enough with her baby. "I should start getting dinner ready."

"What are you making?"

Ashley ran a hand through her hair. She hadn't really thought that far ahead. "What do you want?"

"Anything but Mac and Cheese." Being the only dish Spencer could really manage to make without poisoning anybody who ate it, she and Declan had had Mac and Cheese for dinner every night that Ashley was away.

"That narrows it down." She uncrossed her legs and got up, intent on checking the contents of the fridge. "I'll figure something out."

-

"So what did Glen want?" Ashley asked Spencer as she returned to the kitchen after taking a phone call from her brother.

"He wants me to run down to the store to pick some stuff up for him. Apparently he's swamped at work and he can't go himself."

Ashley looked up from the parsley she was chopping. "He couldn't call Kyla?"

Spencer shrugged. "He said that she's busy." She snagged one of the chunks of carrot that Ashley had already cut up and popped it in her mouth. "So what are you making?"

"I figured that I'd try one of your dad's recipes." She stopped chopping and showed Spencer the paper that Arthur had written the recipe down on for her. "It's like this beef stew thingy."

"Sounds good," Spencer said, slinging the strap of her purse over her shoulder and looking hesitantly from Ashley to their son.

"Shouldn't you be going?"

"Yeah. I should," she answered without moving.

Then Ashley realized the reason for Spencer's hesitance. "We'll be fine, Spence. You're only going to be gone, what, half an hour? I'll cook, he'll color. Don't worry, nothing's going to happen."

"You're right." She was going to have to get used to leaving Declan alone with Ashley sometime. "You're absolutely right." She kissed her wife and son goodbye. "I'll be back soon. Be good."

"I will," Declan assured her.

"I was talking to your Momma."

-

"Your Mommy doesn't think that I'm responsible enough to take care of you Dec," Ashley ranted playfully to her son as she went about making their dinner. "But we'll show her, won't we."

She checked Arthur's recipe again and then set it down on the counter to reach up into one of the overhead cupboards. Unfortunately, she set it a little too close to the open flame on the stove.

"Fuckin' A, that's on fire," she declared in a surprisingly calm fashion, as she noticed the flames that were quickly consuming the paper, and grabbed the nearby wooden spoon to beat the flames out with.

"Okay, it's all good," she said, waving the lingering smoke away once the flames were extinguished. "Crisis averted."

"Fuckin' A! Fuckin' A!" Declan gleefully chanted the new word he'd just learned from his mother.

"Oh fuck."

-

"Ash?" Spencer called out after walking in through the front door and smelling smoke. "Is everything okay?"

"Of course it is," Ashley said, sounding far too chipper. "Why wouldn't it be?"

Spencer walked into the kitchen to find Ashley helping Declan color, looking as innocent as the day she was born. "Because I can smell smoke."

_Damn, I thought I'd sprayed enough air freshener to cover that up._ "There was a small…very, very, very small fire," Ashley admitted reluctantly. "But it's all good, I took care of it. Nothing to worry about."

"Fuckin' A!" Declan decided that this was the perfect moment to shout. Spencer looked at Ashley with an eyebrow raised.

Ashley hung her head in shame. "This is why I'm not allowed to be alone with the kids, isn't it," she stated, accepting it fully.

"Pretty much."

TBC


	10. Planning For The Weekend

**Chapter 10 - Planning For The Weekend**

"Twenty one, I win!" Holly yelled triumphantly as the ball she'd just blocked splashed down on her aunt's side of the pool.

"It's not fair," Ashley complained, pouting. "You cheated."

"How?"

"You kept using your freakish giant powers to block my shots."

"Don't be jealous just because I'm taller than you," Holly shot back, smirking. She gestured for Ashley to toss the ball back over the net that was strung up above water level. "Come on, let's play again. I won't do any more blocking, this time, I swear."

Ashley eyed her warily but passed the ball anyway. "If you do, I get extra points."

"Fine," Holly agreed easily, getting ready to serve. Extra points or not, she was still going to win.

-

"So right now, we're just trying to find a suitable surrogate," Spencer finished explaining to Kyla as they sat out on the deck, watching as Holly and Ashley faced off against each other in another heated game of volleyball in the pool.

"Ha!" Ashley yelled as she spiked the ball perfectly and scored a point. "Suck it, Ho!"

"Remind me again why you're so eager to have more children with her?" Kyla questioned, truly curious.

Spencer just laughed and stroked her son's curly hair as he sat in her lap, playing on his Nintendo. While Declan had mostly gotten over his illness, they were erring on the side of caution and not letting him join his mother and cousin in the water, just in case he got sick again. "I don't think I can really explain it. I just do." She looked over at Kyla, who was looking rather pensive. "How about you, do you think you and Glen will ever have any more kids?"

"Me and Glen?" Kyla asked incredulously and shook her head. Abruptly, she stood. "I need to pee. I'll be right back," she mumbled, retreating back into the house.

"I wonder if it was something I said," Spencer muttered to Declan who just looked back at her with apathetic blue eyes.

"Yep," he said simply before going back to playing with his video game.

"That's what I thought."

-

Kyla stopped on the way back from the bathroom to admire one of the many photographs hanging on the wall in the hall. It was a black and white print of Ashley with a three week old Declan cradled on her chest, both asleep with their faces tilted towards the camera.

"That's my favorite," Spencer said, coming up behind her and making her jump.

"It's really beautiful." Kyla must've walked past it a hundred times but never took the time to really look at it. "Who took it?"

"I did. They looked so peaceful that I couldn't resist," Spencer sighed happily, running a finger along the frame. Despite having no apparent maternal instinct in the beginning, Ashley looked so natural holding their baby in her arms. She couldn't wait to have the experience of seeing it again.

Shaking her head, she took a step away from the picture. "Anyway, I just came in to get a drink. You want anything?"

"Just a coke, thanks," Kyla replied, not taking her attention from the photograph.

"Okay," uttered Spencer, wondering what was up with Kyla's sudden fascination with a photo that had been hanging in their hall for the past four years. She turned and headed for the kitchen, stopping when she didn't hear Kyla's footsteps behind her. "Ky, you coming?"

"Yeah, sure." With one last thoughtful look at the photograph, she followed Spencer into the kitchen to get the drinks.

-

"So how are things with you and Glen?" Spencer broached the question that had been like an elephant in the room all day.

"Better." Kyla swirled the coke in her glass, making the rapidly melting ice cubes clank against the sides. "Worse...I don't know. He's always at work and when he's not at work he's doing something with Holly." They were always out playing basketball in the driveway or video games in the living room. "I mean, not that I'm complaining about him spending time his daughter. I'm glad that they have such a good relationship. I just wish that...I don't know. I don't know what we can do to fix this."

Spencer looked at her sister in law sympathetically. She probably wasn't the best person to give advice on how to fix a broken relationship. Sure, she and Ashley had their rough patches but they had never let things get this dire. "You two obviously need some time to yourselves. If you ever need us to take Holly for a couple of nights, all you have to do is ask," she offered.

"Thanks, Spence. Are you sure that Ashley wouldn't mind?"

"Are you kidding? She adores Holly, she won't mind."  
_  
Even if she did, she's so whipped that she'd never say anything about it to Spencer._ "Yeah, well even if we do manage to get a night alone, there's no telling whether he'll get called down to the bar or not."

"So take the bar out of the equation and get out of the city. Go down the coast for a weekend or to a bed and breakfast," Spencer suggested.

"You could go camping again," Ashley piped up, having emerged from the pool and approached them without being noticed.

"No!" Kyla exclaimed, reflexively crossing her legs.

"No, that'd be perfect," said Spencer, having a sudden flash of genius. "I mean, it was on our camping trip when you first really admitted to yourself that you liked him."

"We're going camping?" Holly squealed in excitement, having only caught the tail end of the conversation. "Oh my god, that's so cool!"

Taking notice of her sister's horrified face, Ashley decided to step in…and make things worse. "Don't be such a pussy, Ky," she said and took a sip from Spencer's glass. "We can rent a cabin. That way your vajayjay will be safe from the evil poison oak lurking out there in the wilderness."

"What?" Holly laughed, wondering if she'd misunderstood what her aunt was implying.

"Oh, Holly," Ashley sighed nostalgically, putting an arm around her niece's shoulders. "I have a such an amazing tale to tell you."

"Don't you dare," Kyla growled, not wanting to rehash the embarrassing incident any further. "And what's all this we stuff?"

"Well it wouldn't be any fun if Spence and I weren't there," Ashley said, while Holly nodded in agreement. Stuck in the middle of nowhere with just her parents, considering the way things were right now, would be a nightmare come true. "And we can keep the kids occupied while you and Glen…do whatever it is that you need to do."

"Can we go, Mom? Please?" Holly begged and, after a nudge in the ribs courtesy of her favorite aunt, turned on the puppy dog eyes as well.

"Okay, fine," Kyla relented. Holly had been handling everything that was going on around her so well that she deserved to have something she really wanted. "I'll talk to Glen and see if he can get some time off."

"He's the boss, he can get time off whenever he wants, Mom," Holly pointed out.

"Good point. I'll make him take time off."

Spencer grinned excitedly. She loved it when plans that she made on the fly came together. "Trust us, Ky, this is going to be so great!"

"You know, that's exactly what you said the last time."

TBC


	11. Damn, You Look Good And I'm Drunk

**Chapter 11 - Damn You Look Good And I'm Drunk **

"Are we there yet?" Declan whined, squirming around in his car seat. They'd been driving for a long time and he was getting bored. Not even the cartoons playing on the in car video screens could entertain him any longer.

"Soon, Dec," Ashley answered him, looking back through the rearview mirror to make sure that Glen and Kyla's BMW was still behind them. She wouldn't put it past those two to end up getting lost on the way.

"Do you think that we'll see any bears?" Holly asked her aunts. She was riding with them to give her parents the chance to have some alone time on the drive into the mountains.

"I hope not," Spencer said. She had a feeling it would not end well. Ashley would probably try to wrestle it or something.

"A T-Rex could eat a bear," Declan informed them all.

Holly tipped back her baseball cap and turned to face her little cousin. "Could a T-Rex eat a polar bear?"

While Declan entertained Holly with a long ramble about how a T-Rex could not eat a polar bear because they lived in the North Pole and it was too cold for dinosaurs there, Ashley took the opportunity to have a semi-private conversation with her wife. "Ten bucks says that Glen and Kyla are fighting right now," she said in a stage whisper.

"Ash, that's a horrible thing to say."

"Yeah, horribly true."

-

"I can't believe you even own Enya's Greatest Hits," Glen grumbled over his girlfriend's awful choice in driving music. He just couldn't take the awful caterwauling any longer.

"It's soothing," Kyla defended it indignantly. "Better than whatever generic soft rock band you're listening to this week."

Glen scowled, Level 6 was not a generic soft rock band. "Are we seriously fighting over our choice in music? I thought that the whole point of this trip was to try and solve our problems, not create more of them."

"You started it by dissing Enya," Kyla sniffed, acting more offended than she really was.

"Why are you being so difficult?"

"I'm not being difficult."

Glen grunted. "Fine, I give up. Listen to your stupid shrieky music."

"I will."

"Great."

-

Thankfully for the bickering couple, they soon arrived at the cabin that Ashley had rented for the weekend.

"It's not much to look at," Glen said, joining the others as they looked at the exterior of the large, slightly rundown cabin that overlooked a small lake. Quite frankly, Glen had been expecting something a little more spectacular from Ashley.

"It's the best I could do on short notice," Ashley explained. "It was either this or a shack that looked like it was the Unabomber's holiday home."

Kyla eyed the cabin dubiously. "Does it even have running water?"

"Yes, and electricity." Ashley checked the piece of paper she had all the details written down on. "At least it will once we turn the generator on."

"I'm sure that it'll look better on the inside," Spencer said optimistically.

"There's only one way to find out." Glen lead the charge up the front steps and into the cabin.

-

"Hey, is that a deer?" Holly immediately pointed out the stuffed head that was displayed proudly high above the fireplace.

"I think it's a moose," said Ashley.

"No, she's right, it's a deer," Spencer corrected her.

"Whatever it is, it's gross," Kyla said disapprovingly. She liked a big juicy steak as much as the next person but killing animals for sport was something that had never sat well with her.

"Moving on from the dead animal head on the wall. There's three bedrooms, they're upstairs, and the bathroom and kitchen are through there." Ashley pointed towards the back of the cabin. "Oh and there's a hot tub out on the back deck."

"Hot tub?" Glen rubbed his hands together. "Sweet."

_Judging from the death glares Kyla's been shooting at you, I doubt that you're going to get a chance to enjoy it properly._ "I think that Spence and I should get the biggest bedroom-"

"Why?"

"Because Declan's going to be sleeping with us," Spencer pointed out. "We need the space."

"Yeah, so we get the biggest bedroom and you guys and Holly can have the other two." Ashley stopped talking and titled her head to the side, listening for the barely audible noise that had been bothering her sensitive ears since they'd set foot in the cabin. "What is that freaking noise?"

Spencer turned to her wife. "What noise?"

"It's like a scratching or something. Can't you hear it?"

Once they'd all stopped talking and started listening, they could near the sound that Ashley was talking about.

"It's coming from over there," Glen announced, pointing to the stack of wood by the fire place.

"So go and check it out," ordered Ashley.

"No, why do I have to do it?"

"You're the guy. And what if it's a snake or something?"

Glen's eyes widened. He hated snakes. "Now I'm definitely not doing it."

"Okay, fine," Ashley sighed as if she was making a huge sacrifice. "I'll do it. You're such a pussy, Glen."

She grabbed a fire poker from the rack near the fireplace, and raised it high, ready to strike if she needed to defend herself against a vicious woodland creature.

"Be careful, Ash," Spencer warned, picking up Declan and balancing him against her hip.

Ashley shot one last disdainful look at her brother-in-law before using her foot to kick the wood aside, revealing the large rodent that had been hiding there.

The rat froze at the human intrusion and looked up at Ashley with it's beady black eyes. Then it's fight or flight response kicked in and it attempted to make a run for freedom.

Dropping any pretense of being brave, Ashley screamed like a little girl and dropped the poker as the rat charged right at her. Still squealing, she ran across the room and hid behind Spencer.

Kyla's reaction was similar, she shrieked and jumped up onto the nearest armchair, leaving her daughter and boyfriend to fend for themselves.

Thinking quickly, Holly slipped off her heavy basketball shoe and threw it with devastating accuracy, nailing the moving furry target and stopping it in it's tracks.

"Nice arm!" Glen exclaimed, extremely impressed. _Maybe I should be trying to get her into baseball._

"Is it dead?" Kyla whimpered, not setting a foot on the ground before she knew it was safe for her to do so.

"I don't think so, it's still breathing," Holly said as they all crowded around the shocked rodent.

"It must be just stunned," Glen theorised.

"We should kill it!" Ashley said, looking around for the fire poker she'd dropped in her panic. "If we let it go then it'll just come back."

"We can't do that. Look at it, it looks so scared," Spencer said sympathetically. "The poor thing is practically hyperventilating."

"Screw that," said Glen. "Ashley's right, we should just kill it."

Realizing how much Spencer disapproved of this idea, Ashley changed her tune. "We can't do that, that's mean."

"But two seconds ago you were all 'kill it, kill it,'" Glen reminded her.

"So? I'm allowed to change my mind."

"I don't care what you do with it," Kyla shrieked from atop the chair. "Just get it out of here before it recovers."

"I'm not touching it." Ashley put her hands up and backed away.

"Me either," Glen agreed.

Spencer shook her head when they looked to her. She may have been against killing it but that didn't mean that she was going to volunteer to touch it. What if it bit her and gave her the plague? Who would take care of Ashley then?

"I'll do it," Holly volunteered. _Adults, honestly._

She took off her hat and used it to scoop up the rat, ignoring her mother's squeals of disgust. "Can somebody get the door?"

-

That night, after dinner, the kids were sent off to bed early to prepare for the next day, leaving their parents free to relax in front of the fire with a bottle or three of wine.

Spencer grabbed the nearest bottle and clumsily tipped it into her glass. She grimaced when only a small trickle of the cherished crimson liquid fell into her glass. Ashley stifled her giggles behind her hand as she watched her much drunker wife raise the bottle to her eye and let out a small squeak when the last drop of wine dribbled out onto her cheek.

"Um, Spencer, how many glasses have you had?" Ashley asked, smirking. She'd been covertly refilling Spencer's glass when the blonde wasn't looking. While Spencer probably thought she'd only had three glasses to drink, in reality it was probably closer to six. Drunk!Spencer was just so much fun and now that they had Declan, Ashley rarely got a chance to experience her anymore.

Spencer smiled drunkenly and lifted her overly large wine glass in the air, "Just this one."

Ashley chuckled and shook her head. "Uh-huh. And how many refills have you had?"

Spencer's face scrunched up as she racked her brain for the answer. "Don't know. Don't care. More wine!" she cried, reaching once more for the empty bottle.

Ashley shook her head, gently removing the bottle from the blonde's reach. "No more wine." Spencer looked at her with wide blue eyes.

"Why?"

"Because it's all gone." All three bottles worth.

Spencer's eyes grew even wider as she leaned in to whisper, "Why's it all gone?"

"Because you drank it all."

Spencer gasped loudly and shrank back in horror. "No! It's really all gone?" The much more sober Ashley nodded solemnly, struggling not to laugh. "I'm sorry."

Ashley patted her hand comfortingly. "It's okay, babe. I know how much you like the red."

"I do," she agreed dopily. "It makes me so happy."

"I can see that," Ashley said, nodding indulgently.

Spencer sighed happily and affectionately nuzzled her face into Ashley's neck. "You make me happy too." She paused to nip at her wife's throat. "You smell really good."

"I do?" Ashley teased.

Spencer nodded and started tracing her finger's across her wife's face. "You smell like…like Ashley."

Meanwhile, on the opposite couch, Glen and Kyla watched as their sister's grew increasingly intimate with each other.

"This is like a car wreck," Glen uttered in a kind of enthralled horror. "I don't want to see it but I can't make myself look away. I can't believe that Spencer's actually trying to get Ashley to mount her while we're still in the room."

Kyla turned to her boyfriend, annoyance flashing in her eyes. "Well people can so stupid things while they're drunk. At least she's not out fucking some stranger that she met in a bar."

"That's so not fair."

"You're telling me."

"Okay, you know what, I'm sick of you acting like I'm the only one that's screwed up. You're not all that innocent yourself, you know," Glen raised his voice, momentarily diverting Ashley's attention away from Spencer's drunken attempt to seduce her.

"I'm not the one who had sex with somebody else!" Kyla shot back.

_Great, that's just great Kyla, put all the blame on me._"Yeah, well at least I'm not the one who had a sex dream about their sister!"

_Holy awkward, Batman!_ Ashley didn't know whether to feel creeped out or flattered by this sensitive new knowledge.

Kyla flushed bright red, embarrassed tears stinging at her eyes. "You promised that you'd never say anything about that! God, you're such an asshole," she raged, struggling to her feet.

"Where are you going?"

"Fuck you, Glen!" She shouted storming out the door.

Glen looked helplessly to the two innocent witness to the argument. "Do you think I should give her some space or-"

"If you don't go after her then I really will cut off your balls," Ashley threatened.

Glen hopped up quickly, he was rather attached to his testicles, and followed hot on Kyla's trail out the door of the cabin, intent on finding his girlfriend.

-

He found her sitting on the edge of the dock, staring out across the moonlit lake. The tears were clearly visible on her face and he felt like even more of an ass for taking things that far.

He could hear Kyla sniffling as he approached and stopped a good few feet away from her, unsure if she would welcome his presence.

"I'm sorry," he apologized softly. "I shouldn't have said that, especially in front of Ashley." He looked down at his feet, feeling ashamed of himself. "I shouldn't have said a lot of the things I said back in there."

Kyla didn't say anything, just gave a nod that was barely perceptible. Glen shuffled forward a few inches, taking this as a good sign.

"Look, I know that the whole point of this weekend was to try and make an effort to fix things between us. And I also know that neither of us have really been making that much of an effort. So, right here and now, I want that to change. I want us to try Kyla, really try, because I don't want to lose you."

"If we were really meant to be together we shouldn't have to try," Kyla whimpered, her voice heavy with emotion. "Maybe it's not worth the trouble."

"That's bullshit," Glen argued. He wasn't going to take this lying down. He moved to sit next to his girlfriend and put his arm around her shoulders, ensuring that she wasn't going anywhere. "As long as we love each other then it's always worth the trouble." Looking deep into Kyla's eyes, Glen could see that his words were having an effect and continued. "See…a relationship is…it's kind of like a classic muscle car, sometimes they need a lot of work to keep them going but they're always worth it."

Kyla let out a small giggle. "Like you know anything about muscle cars." Glen wasn't like all the other macho guys with the obsessions with football and cars with big engines. It was one of the things she loved about him.

"Yeah, I know but one of my waiters, Mario, he won't shut up about this Camaro he's restoring. I guess some of it sank in," he admitted easily before getting serious again. "I meant what I said. I really do not want to lose you, Kyla. You and Holly are the best things in my life."

"I don't want to lose you either." As many problems as they had, she didn't know what she would do without him.

"And I guess the reason that I haven't been trying to make things right, is because I don't know what to do. I don't know how to make up for what I did. I don't even know where to start."

_I don't either._ Kyla thought looking back out over the calm surface of the lake. "Just hold me."

Glen tightened his arms around her. "That I can do."

-

They sat in silence, staring out over the lake and occasionally looking up at the stars, until the cool breeze coming off the water started to get to Kyla.

Holding hands, Glen and Kyla made their way back towards the cabin in the dark.

"I'm glad we're doing this," he said as the reached the porch.

"Me too."

He pulled open the screen door for her to enter the cabin and almost ran into her back when he tried to follow.

"Oh, come on!" Kyla groaned at the sight of Ashley and Spencer getting busy on the rug in front of the fireplace. "Ashley, so not appropriate!"_ I suppose that I should be thankful that they still have their clothes on._

Ashley pulled her lips away from her wife's neck long enough to smirk at her sister. "Spencer's a horny drunk, you know that."

"Doesn't mean we need to see it," Glen said.

"Where else are we supposed to do it? Declan's sleeping up in our room."

"That's never stopped you before," Kyla commented dryly.

"He was only five months old then and he couldn't talk," reasoned Ashley, trying her best to get the words out in between the sloppy kisses that Spencer was trying to give her.

"This is boring," Spencer complained, getting sick of all the attention Ashley was giving to the people that weren't her. "Let's go try out the hot tub." She glared at the interlopers, who had cut short sexy time with Ashley. "You're not invited."

TBC


	12. Everything Falls Into Place

**Chapter 12 - Everything Falls Into Place**

Kyla rose bright and early at seven the next morning, and left Glen snoring in bed, to try and get breakfast organized for the rest of the family before anybody else woke up. However, when she entered the kitchen, she found that Ashley had already beaten her to it.

"Hey," Ashley turned to her and said, before Kyla could make an escape.

"Hi." Kyla shifted awkwardly on the spot. "I didn't expect you to be up so early after last night."

"Couldn't sleep," Ashley began with a devious smirk. "Yeah, I kept having these dreams about having sex with you."

Kyla groaned, she'd been waiting for Ashley to bring this up. "Shut up, okay. Look, it was back when we were still living in the loft together and Spencer was over every night and you guys were really loud and I could hear everything! So I guess my subconscious just put images to the noises you were making-"

"Ky, I get it. It's okay." Ashley laughed at how uptight Kyla was about it. "It's not like you could help it. I mean, even I've had sex dreams about me."  
_  
Why am I so not surprised._

"Yeah, the other night I had this one where there was like two of me and we were both doing Spencer at the same time but then I got jealous and started making out with the other me. It was hot," she recounted.

"O…kay," Kyla said dubiously and backed away from Ashley. "I'm sure it was. So we're cool, right?"

"Totally. Now, since you're up, you can help me with breakfast."

"Great." Cooking with Ashley was always quite the experience. The last time they'd cooked together, she'd accidentally set Kyla's hair on fire. _This should be fun._

-

"Ugh, I'm never drinking again," Spencer groaned, holding her head as she joined the rest of the family in the kitchen for breakfast and slumped into the chair next to her son at the dining table.

"Don't say horrible things like that, Spence," Ashley said, shoving a plateful of steaming hot food under her wife's nose. "Eggs?"

Spencer swallowed back a gag and pushed the plate away. "Coffee. Lots and lots of coffee."

Ashley kissed the top of her mussed, aching head. "I can do that."

"Mommy, are you sick?" Declan asked, his tiny hand covering Spencer's in concern.

"No, baby." Spencer mustered up a smile for her son. "I'm just a little under the weather this morning...Dec, swear to me that you'll never drink alcohol."

"I promise," Declan said. If this was what this 'alcohol' did to his Mommy, then he didn't want any part of it.

"Yeah, see how well that promise holds out when he turns sixteen," said Glen.

"I won't," Declan swore stubbornly. He'd never go back on his word to his Mommy. His Momma always told him that he should love his Mommy more than anything in the world and should never, ever lie to her.

"You're such a good boy," Ashley praised, ruffling his golden curls as she sat a mug of fresh coffee down in front of Spencer. Spencer latched onto the mug as if it were a life preserver and she was a drowning woman.

"So what's on the agenda for today?" Kyla enquired as Ashley took her seat next to Spencer.

"Well, firstly, we need to cut more wood for the fire," said Ashley.

"I can do that," Glen offered through a mouthful of food.

"Now that I have to see."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I think what Aunty Ashley means," Holly said gently. "Is that you're not exactly the lumberjack type, Dad."

Glen shrugged off the attack on his manhood. "It's not like it'll be hard or anything."

"If you say so," Ashley said dismissively. If Glen wanted to chop wood then he could chop wood.

"I was thinking that we could take the kids out to explore the trails around here this afternoon," said Spencer. "Give you guys sometime to yourselves."

"Sounds good. Thanks, Spence," Kyla said gratefully. Hopefully she and Glen could keep up the momentum from the night before and get some things sorted out.

"Hey, do you think that we'll run into any bears on our hike?" Holly asked, her brown eyes glinting with excitement. "I swear to god, I heard one outside last night."

Spencer blushed, she knew exactly what the sounds Holly had heard were and she knew that it definitely wasn't a bear that was making them.

"What is it with you and bears, kid?" asked Ashley.

"I just like them. They're like the garbage disposals of the animal kingdom."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I saw it on Animal Planet."

"Cool."

-

"Glen, are you sure that you know what you're doing?" Kyla called out from the back deck of the cabin, where the womenfolk and children were watching him prepare to cut the firewood. She was legitimately worried that she was about to see her boyfriend accidentally cut off his own toes.

"Don't worry!" He yelled back and peeled off his shirt.

"Oh ew," Ashley muttered, looking away. "How can you be attracted to that? Even I have more muscle tone than him." _And a better all over tan._

"Not everything is about looks, Ashley," scolded Kyla.

"Hey," Holly interrupted the sister's bickering before they could really get started. "He's about to do it."

Glen squared his shoulders and raised the axe high. He brought it down and only managed to split the wooden log halfway, almost falling over in the process.

Ashley burst out laughing. "Way to fail at being manly, Glen."

Glen halted in his struggle to free the head of the axe from the log and glared at her. "You think you could do better?"

"Um, yes." _Holly probably could've done better.  
_  
"Well come on down then," Glen invited, holding out his arms.

Never one to back down from a challenge, Ashley rolled her eyes and handed Declan off to Spencer.

"Oh, this should be good," Holly remarked to the older women as Ashley ambled her way towards the chopping block.

"Hey, Spence," said Kyla. "Weren't you in Boy Scouts?"

"It was Young Adventurers, how many times do I have to say it?"

"Dad's shown me the pictures," Holly said. "It was Boy Scouts."

Spencer pouted. "Fine, it was Boy Scouts," she admitted sulkily.

"So shouldn't you know how to chop firewood?" Kyla got back to her original point.

"I do."

"So why aren't you doing this?"

"Because I'm hung over...and watching them do it is so much funnier," Spencer explained.

Meanwhile, Ashley had finally managed to free the axe from where Glen had gotten it stuck in the wood.

"What the hell are you doing?" Glen asked. Ashley had backed a good ten feet away after putting a fresh log up on the block.

"Getting a run up, what does it look like."

"What is she doing?" Holly muttered, watching Ashley bounce on her heels.

Suddenly she startled them all by letting out a yell and charging at the chopping block with her axe raised high, looking like a total psychopath. She stopped a few feet short of the wood and bought the axe down, the momentum helping to cleave the log cleanly in two.

Ashley let out a cheer. "And that's how you do it, bitch," she boasted, wiping imaginary sweat from her brow. This physical labor stuff was hard work.

Glen clapped his hands together. "Great. Well since you're obviously a natural, I think I should hand over wood cutting duties to you."

Ashley was shocked by Glen's suggestion. Sure, she didn't mind putting on a demonstration of her physical prowess, but there was a really big pile of wood that had to be chopped. "Ahhh, no."

"Come on," Glen clapped her on the shoulder. "You're better at it than me, you'll be done in no time. Besides, I thought that the whole point of this weekend was for me to spend time with Kyla, not to train to be a lumberjack."

"God, fine. I'll do it," Ashley gave in. But little did Glen know that she wasn't doing it for him. She'd seen the look on Spencer's face after she'd chopped that first log. Spencer was totally getting turned on and who was she to deprive her wife of her eyecandy.

-

"How're you feeling?" Spencer asked as Ashley trudged back up to the deck, looking significantly more sweaty and disheveled than she'd been when she left.

"Sore." Ashley tried to stretch out her protesting back and shoulder muscles. "And strangely butch."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah, now I have this really weird urge to get a mullet and start wearing flannel."

Spencer wrinkled her nose in distaste. She loved Ashley exactly the way she was. "Please don't."

"Don't worry, Spence," Ashley assured her, dropping her tired body into the younger woman's lap. "I love my hair too much to do that to it."

"Good, because I love your hair too." Spencer absently tangled her fingers in Ashley's curls.

"I know, you told me last night," Ashley chuckled as the tips of Spencer's ears went red. "So where is everyone?" she asked, noticing that Spencer was the only one left outside.

"Inside, making lunch."

"So they're busy and we're all alone out here..." she trailed off suggestively.

"What, you didn't get enough last night?"

Ashley smiled lazily. "Baby, I can never get enough of you."

-  
TBC


	13. From A Mountain In The Middle Of

**Chapter 13 - From A Mountain In The Middle Of The Cabins **

"Hey, what's for lunch?" Ashley asked, leading Spencer back into the kitchen of the cabin after their exhilarating adventure in the great outdoors.

"It's about time you two came in," said Kyla, raising an eyebrow at their messy appearance. "You okay, Spence? You look a little flushed."

Ashley smirked while Spencer hid her face against her back. "She's fine, she was helping me out."

"I'll bet she was."

Then Holly came skidding into the room, saving Spencer from any further teasing at Kyla's hands. "Did you see it?" she squealed excitedly.

"See what?" Spencer asked, her face starting to return to it's normal color.

"The bear! I heard it outside again so I went upstairs to see if I could see it from any of the windows up there but I couldn't see anything."

Ashley, Kyla and Glen all had to try and stifle their giggles while Declan looked around confused as to why they were all laughing -Bears were no match for a T-Rex but they were still no laughing matter- and why his mother's face had gone bright red again. Maybe she was still feeling sick.

"Oh, the bear…yeah, we saw it but I scared it away…with my axe," Ashley lied in a lame attempt to salvage her wife's dignity.

"Wow," Holly breathed in awe. Her aunt really was the coolest person she knew.

"I know, I'm awesome…and hungry, so again I ask, what's for lunch?"

"PB & J's" Glen announced, setting a plateful of sandwiches down on the table for everyone to share.

"Your culinary prowess continually amazes me, Glen. It really does." She threw her arm around Spencer's shoulders and ushered her wife towards the doorway. "Come on, Yogi, let's go and get cleaned up."

"That's not funny," Spencer hissed, gently elbowing Ashley as the older woman lead her out of the kitchen.

"It's a little bit funny."

-

"Kids, go and get your jackets," Spencer instructed the children as they prepared to go on their planned hike.

While Holly, Declan and Ashley obediently scrambled upstairs to the bedrooms to get their coats, Kyla joined her sister-in-law at the bottom of the stairs. "Thanks for this, Spence."

"It's no problem. I think that the fresh air will be good for the kids."

"I meant for the whole weekend. It was a really good idea, I think it's just what me and Glen needed."

"I'm just glad that you two are working things out." She didn't even want to think how awkward the family gatherings would be if Glen and Kyla actually broke up and started seeing other people. And now that she knew Aiden was back in town, Spencer wouldn't put it past him to come sniffing around Kyla while she was hurt and vulnerable. He seemed to have a particular talent for taking advantage of vulnerable women.

"Ashley packed Declan's clothes for this weekend, didn't she," Kyla remarked when her nephew came thundering down the stairs decked out in a black hoodie covered in tiny blue and yellow skulls. Whenever Declan looked like he'd run through the children's section of Hot Topic with his eyes closed, it was a pretty safe bet that Ashley was the one responsible for it.

"Do you really have to ask?" Spencer said with a bemused expression.

Then Ashley came down the stairs with Holly, who was wearing a much more sensible black track jacket over her Lakers jersey. "I got yours," she said, handing Spencer her much worn UCLA sweatshirt.

"Thanks, Ash." Spencer turned to Kyla. "We should be gone for like an hour, is that enough time for you guys?"

Kyla nodded. "That should be fine."

Holly nudged Ashley with her elbow. "Hey, so exactly how big was that bear?"

-

It was official, Ashley did not get the appeal of hiking. She couldn't believe that there were people in the world that did it for fun. It was just like walking, only harder.

"How old were you when you had had your first crush?" Holly finally plucked up the courage to ask. When she'd asked her father he just covered his ears and said that he couldn't hear her until she changed the subject but she knew that her aunts would be cool with it.

"Five," Ashley answered instantly. "This little blonde girl gave me a rainbow lollypop and I was in love with her for like a year." Then the gears started to turn in her head. "Wait, you've got a crush!"

Holly muttered something incomprehensible and looked down at her feet, hiding her pink face behind a curtain of hair.

Ashley smirked knowingly. "So who's the lucky girl then?"

"Patrick," Holly mumbled, gaining courage. "From across the street."

"That mushroom haired little midget? Oh, Holly, no." Ashley shook her head disapprovingly.

"He's ten and he has a skateboard," Holly elaborated, going all dreamy eyed.

Spencer smiled at her niece while helping Declan climb over a large rock. She knew that Ashley was going to take this hard, she'd had her hopes set on Holly turning out just like her; preference for girls included.

"You know, when you're sixteen that'll change to he's eighteen and has a motorbike and then your mom will have an epic bitch fit and find some way to blame it all on me." Ashley threw her arm around her niece's shoulders. "Do yourself a favor and find a nice girl to crush on. Way less drama that way." _And no possibility of teenage pregnancy scares that'll turn Glen's hair prematurely white._

"Yes, because our teenage years were so drama free," Spencer remarked sarcastically.

"That was all because of Aiden," Ashley said dismissively. "And your mom." Spencer cleared her throat forcing Ashley to reluctantly add, "And because I use to be an insensitive dumbass."

"That's sounds about right."

"Anyway, my point is that you're just asking for trouble with boys. Besides, you're only eight, you're way to young to date. You shouldn't even be thinking about it." _Eight year olds dating. What has the world come to? I blame Britney Spears for this decline of society._

"I'm almost nine," Holly protested.

"Sweetie," Spencer said gently. "I don't think it's going to matter if you're nineteen, your dad is never going to approve of you dating."

"A guy," added Ashley.

"Anybody," the blonde corrected sternly. "Ash, it's not her fault that she likes boys, she can't help it. Let her make up her own mind."

Ashley shrugged her shoulders, thoroughly chagrined. "I'm just saying that if she's straight and makes it into the WNBA, then she's totally going to be the odd one out, that's all."

Holly laughed and shook her head at her aunt. Not every woman in the WNBA was gay, she was sure that some of them had husbands. Then something in a nearby tree caught her eye. "Hey, a beehive," she pointed out.

"Cool." Ashley was easily distracted. "Let's throw rocks at it."

"Let's not." Spencer grabbed on to her wife's arm to stop her. "Haven't you ever seen My Girl?"

Ashley frowned. "Who's Girl?"

Spencer sighed. She should've figured that the reference to one of her childhood favorites would be lost on her wife. "Come on, we should be heading back before it starts getting dark."

-

"Momma, I gotta pee," Declan announced to his parents as they rounded the corner and their cabin came into sight in the distance.

"Can you hold it or do you want to go behind a bush?" Ashley asked.

Declan made a face. Although he didn't quite understand what had happened to his Aunt Kyla when she had peed outside, he knew that it must have been something bad. "I can hold it."

"You sure?"

Declan nodded resolutely. He was a big boy now, he could hold it.

"Okay, do you want a piggy back ride?"

"Yes!"

Ashley easily swung Declan up onto her back, knowing that she'd be able to cover the ground to the cabin twice as fast as his tiny legs could.

"Hey Holly, wanna race?"

While she was always up for an athletic challenge, Holly had to turn this one down for the sake of her young cousin's safety. "Not right now."

"Okay," Ashley grumbles but still quickened her pace to a brisk walk. She didn't want her son's bladder, like, exploding or something. That would totally suck.

Moving at a quicker pace allowed the group to reach the cabin in half the time. Still carrying Declan on her back, Ashley held the door open for Spencer and Holly to enter.

Holly gagged at the sight of her parents making out on one of the couches. She was happy that they weren't fighting but there were just some things that children were not meant to see and parental units tonguing like teenager was right up there.

"Don't let us interrupt," Ashley finally said after Glen and Kyla failed to notice their arrival. The two sprung apart guiltily, rumpled and red faced.

"You're back early," Kyla squeaked out and tried to straighten her clothes.

"We were gone for over two hours," Ashley pointed out, smiling sardonically.

"Oh. I guess we must've lost track of the time."

"Ya think?"

"Kyla, would you like to help me get dinner started?" Spencer finally stepped in to save the pair from any further embarrassment at her wife's hands.

"Yes. Yes, I would."

-

"So," Spencer began, eager to get all the juicy gossip out of her sister in law as they washed the dishes together while Ashley and Glen put the children to bed, after dinner. "What happened with you and Glen today?"

"We talked."

Spencer paused with her hands in the soapy water. "You did a lot more than that."

"We talked, about everything, and we agreed to wipe the slate clean and start fresh...then, and I know that this sounds totally lame, but he offered to make me some smores and I saw that guy that I fell in love with, you know. I really think that this is going to work out...and it's all because of you."

"No, it's not," Spencer scoffed, pulling the plug and letting the water out of the sink. "I didn't do anything. You don't give yourself enough credit."

"Neither do you." Kyla wiped her hands on a nearby tea towel after putting the last of the cutlery away. "Anyway, that's not all we talked about while you were gone."

"Yeah?"

"We talked about you and Ashley too."

Spencer looked confused. "Me and Ash? Why?"

"Because...Because I want to be your surrogate."

Spencer hadn't been this pleasantly surprised since Ashley had gotten Kelly Clarkson to perform at their wedding. "You what?"

"I've been thinking about it a lot and I figured that it would be better to keep it in the family, you know," Kyla rushed out, afraid that Spencer was upset by her offer. "I mean, instead of trusting some stranger with your baby. And you and Ash have done so much for me over the years, I feel like this is finally my chance to give something back." And if she played it right, she could totally make it count as Ashley's birthday and Christmas presents for the next couple of years. Ashley was the absolute worst person to try to shop for; if she wanted something for herself then she bought it and giving her money was a pretty pointless gesture considering that she was the wealthiest one in the family. Kyla would almost rather go through the pain of childbirth than agonize over what to get her sister for Christmas.

"And Glen's okay with this?" Spencer asked, still a little stunned by this sudden development.

"Of course." She wouldn't be offering otherwise. "He was actually surprised that you guys hadn't asked me yet. So was I, for that matter."

"You always said that you never wanted to have any more children after Holly." And after being in labor for twenty eight hours and having to push an eleven pound baby out of her tiny body, nobody could blame Kyla for that. "The thought never even really crossed our minds."

"Well, I'm just hoping that whatever the hell it was, that made Holly so big, came from my mom's side of the family and your one will be normal sized. Otherwise it's going to be a C-section all the way."

Spencer started to tear up as the reality of the situation hit her. Kyla wanted to have their baby! Of course, Ashley entered the kitchen at that very moment and, noticing the tears in her wife's eyes, immediately went into protective mode.

"Kyla, why is she crying? What the fuck did you say to her?" she asked, immediately going to Spencer's side. She was fully prepared to smack Kyla upside the head if she had been the one to make her cry.

"I'm going to have your baby!"

Ashley stopped in her tracks and put up her hands. "I swear to god, it's not mine," she assured Spencer sincerely. "Kyla, you dumbass, you can't get pregnant from sex dreams. No matter how awesome I'm sure I am in them."

Kyla rolled her eyes at her idiot half sister. "No, you butthead. I just told Spencer that I want to be your surrogate mother."

"Oh." Comprehension dawned on Ashley's face. "Ohhhh!"

"Yeah."

"My sister's going to have my baby," Ashley muttered, trying to wrap her head around this sudden development. "This is going to be the hottest, most messed up kid in the world."

-  
TBC


	14. The Life Of The Party

**Chapter 14 - The Life Of The Party**

A few days later they were back in civilization and celebrating Paula and Arthur's thirtieth wedding anniversary. Glen had graciously booked out the bar for the special occasion, even though there were only seven people in attendance. In fact, the only guest that was not related to the happy couple, in one way or another, was an old friend of Arthur's from when he was still a social worker.

"Do you think that it's weird that none of us really have friends outside of the family?" Glen whispered to Ashley as they all sat around a large table waiting for their after dinner drinks.

"I have other friends," she said, a little defensively. "I have Chloe and Cedric and Toni and Kelly and Chris-"

"The first three you work with and the last two are acquaintances, they don't count."

Ashley pouted then smiled triumphantly. "Dylan, Tucker and Reed. I win." Although they lived on opposite sides of the country, Ashley still kept in close contact with the brothers. In fact, Dylan was the sperm donor responsible for Declan's existence.

"You work with them too," Glen pointed out. Whenever Ashley needed session players while working on the east coast, she often called upon the boys to help her out.

"But I knew them before that, so they totally count. So I have more friends than you. Suck it, Glen."

"Don't be mean to him," Kyla chided, petting her suddenly downcast boyfriend's hand comfortingly. "It's not like we have the time to really go out and socialize."

Ashley smirked. "Yeah, since Glen's so busy with work and you're busy with…what exactly?"

"…Holly." Nevermind that Holly's in school and was out of the house for half of the day. "And my charity work."

"Right." Ashley felt a soft nudge in her side from Spencer and turned her attention to her wife.

"I think it's time for a speech."

"There's going to be a speech?" Ashley looked panicked. "I don't have to do it, do I? I'm not even their kid."

Spencer looked at her pleadingly. "Please, Ash, you know how much I hate public speaking." It was true, whenever Spencer had to stand up and introduce one of her movies at a film festival, she got all stuttery and blushed all over the place. Naturally, Ashley found it adorable.

"So make Glen do it, he's the whole reason that they got married. It'd be fitting."

"Good point." Spencer looked at her parents who were deep in conversation with Arthur's friend and then leaned across Ashley to whisper to her brother. "Glen, you have to make a speech."

"What, why?" This was the first he was hearing about it.

"Because you're the first born, it's your responsibility."

"Oh," Glen accepted. "Okay, do I have to do it now?"

"Yes," Spencer said with a satisfied smile and leaned back into her chair.

Glen took a moment to compose a bare outline of what he wanted to say and then stood and clinked his fork against his freshly filled champagne glass. Immediately, the table went silent and all eyes were on him. "Um, I'd like to make a toast to my mom and dad. Two pretty awesome people who met a long time ago and I, for one, am pretty grateful for that." He paused for polite chuckles from his audience. "They've been through their rough patches, I know that things got pretty bad for a while. But here they are, happy and still together all these years later…this is kind of embarrassing for me to admit but you inspire me to try and live up to the example that you've set for me…for all of us. So." He raised his glass. "To Paula and Arthur…I think I speak for Spencer when I say thanks for having us."

"That was beautiful, Glen,' said Paula, touched by her son's words. Glen just shrugged self-consciously.

"Time for presents," Ashley announced eagerly, handing a large white envelope across the table to Arthur.

"What is this?" Arthur opened the loose flap of the envelope and pulled out the contents. "Oh my."

"What-" Paula gasped as she realized what the papers that Arthur had handed her were. "Oh girls, this is too much." They were tickets for a five week European vacation that hit all the major cities that any tourist would want to see.

"I think that everyone needs to experience Europe at least once." To make up for their disastrous first honeymoon, Ashley had taken Spencer on a second only two weeks later. They spent two and a half months on a European adventure.

"Paris is amazing, mom," said Spencer, fondly remembering the time they had spent there. "You're going to love it."

This all only served to remind Glen that he had neglected to get his parents a gift. "Ah, that's from us too," he interrupted.

Spencer looked at her brother disapprovingly. "I can't believe that you forgot to get them anything. I reminded you about it last week."

He just shrugged helplessly. "I've been busy." Then an idea came to him. "Although, you could say that I had a hand in giving them the greatest gift of all." Spencer looked confused until Glen pointedly nodded to Kyla.

"What are you two talking about?" Arthur asked, intrigued by the cryptic discussion that his children were having.

Spencer looked at her wife. "Do you want to tell them?"

Ashley shook her head. "They're your parents, you should do it." She didn't want to steal Spencer's thunder.

"Okay. Um, you guys know how we've been looking for a surrogate to have our baby. Well, we've found one. Kyla's volunteered to carry the baby and we have an appointment at Lakehurst next week to get the process started. You're going to be having another grandchild!"

-

Later in the evening, once the eating was over, the actual partying began and now they had an extra reason to celebrate.

By then Spencer had a good buzz going and was hanging all over Ashley, as she was prone to do whenever she had a little to drink. "You are so pretty," she sighed, playing with Ashley's hair. "And I know that you think your glasses make you look like a dork but I think that you look even hotter in them. You've got this sexy Tina Fey vibe going on."

"Uh, thanks," Ashley pushed her black frames up from where they'd slipped down her nose.

"You know what I'm going to do?" Spencer said as Paula finished up a stirring rendition of Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves on the karaoke machine that Glen had set up for the special occasion. "I'm going to sing a song for you."

"Oh, Spence, no!" Ashley tried to grab her wife but Spencer was too fast and managed to hop of her lap and out of range before she could get a good grip.

"How much has she had to drink?" Kyla asked, looking bemused as Spencer perused the song list in search of the perfect song to dedicate to her sexy wife.

"She's only had two glasses of champagne. I think that the bubbles get to her and make her go insane."

Kyla laughed at what a lightweight Spencer was, while the blonde in question took to the small stage.

Ashley cringed as Spencer dedicated the song that she was about to sing to her. It wasn't that Spencer was a bad singer, she certainly wasn't anywhere near Kyla's ear-splitting level of cringe worthiness. In fact, the blonde had quite a pleasant voice. The problem was that when Spencer was drunk enough to loose her inhibitions and actually use it, she had a habit of choosing the most inappropriate songs known to man. Last year, at Ashley's birthday party, Spencer had sung 'Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch Me' while attempting to give Ashley a lap dance in front of their shocked friends and family. Ashley had never been so amused/embarrassed in all her life. Until now…

"Oh dear god." She buried her face in her hands, instantly recognizing the opening chords of the song Spencer was about to sing, and contemplated what the reaction would be if she tried physically removed Spencer from the stage before deciding to just sit back and enjoy it. At least Declan and Holly were safe at home with the babysitter and not around to see this.  
_  
"I love myself, I want you to love me. When I'm feeling down, I want you above me-"  
_

TBC


	15. You Were Always The One

**Chapter 15 - You Were Always The One**

"Come on, Spence." Ashley opened the door to help her drunk wife out of her car. "We're home."

"I can walk," Spencer slurred when Ashley tried to pick her up. She swayed unsteadily on her feet before getting her bearings. "See? I can-" She took a step and promptly started to topple face first to the ground. Luckily, Ashley was prepared for this to happen and caught her easily. "Whoa."

"Sure you can walk, baby. But let me help you, okay?"

Spencer grinned with drunken benevolence. If it would make Ashley happy then she supposed that she could let her help, even though she totally didn't need it. "'kay."

Ashley looped one of Spencer's arms around her neck and got a firm grip around her wife's waist, effectively holding the blonde up. "Alright, here we go."

They made it all the way to their front doorstep before Spencer started to look a little green around the gills.

"You feeling alright, Spence?" Ashley asked cautiously, while digging around in her pocket with one hand for her house keys.

"I'm great! I feel totally-" She turned her head and started vomiting into the bushes. Ashley stepped back just in time to avoid getting puke on her shoes. Ah, the only downside to Drunk!Spencer. "-fine," she panted once she was done.

"I can see that." Ashley opened the door and leant Spencer against the wall so she had her hands free to turn off the alarm.

"I gotta put Dec to bed," Spencer said, pushing herself off the wall.

But Ashley managed to catch her before she could reach the stairs. "He's spending the night at Glen and Kyla's, remember?" It just worked out easier for everybody involved to let the kids spend the whole night at whoever's house they were babysat at that night.

"Oh yeah. So…we're all alone…" She moved in for a kiss which Ashley nimbly avoided.

"Spence, I love you but I'm not kissing you again until we get your teeth cleaned."

Spencer pouted and looked like she was about to cry. Ashley liked to call this expression her angry toddler face and tried to appease her before she started crying in earnest. "Don't be like that, baby. You don't let me kiss you when I have barf breath."

The blonde pointedly looked away, her drunkenly fragile feelings hurt.

Ashley sighed. There was really only one thing she could do. She bent her knees and easily scooped the younger woman up in her arms, making Spencer squeal happily and forget all about her hurt feelings.

"Ash, put me down, I'm too heavy!" Spencer protested, giggling, as Ashley ascended the stairs with her in her arms.

Ashley scoffed, Spencer was in no way heavy. Besides this was much easier, and faster, than half dragging the blonde up the stairs while constantly worrying that Spencer would lose her footing and crack her skull open.

-

After a quick detour to the bathroom to brush Spencer's teeth, and rinse out her mouth with a rather generous amount of mouthwash, Ashley carried her increasingly drowsy wife into their bed room and gently laid her down on the king sized bed.

"Are you still going to love me in thirty years?" Spencer pondered out loud while Ashley kneeled at the bottom of the bed to help her get her shoes off.

Ashley smiled and discarded Spencer's shoes and crawled up the bed and leaned her weight on her elbows so she could hover above her wife. "I'm still going to love in thirty years," she promised and kissed Spencer's nose. "And I'm gonna love you in fifty years." She kissed Spencer's sensitive neck, making her giggle. "And in a hundred years."

Spencer wrinkled her nose up. "But we'll be old."

"Doesn't matter," Ashley spoke softly, her head still buried in the crook of her wife's neck. "I could be all old and wrinkly and so senile that I can't even remember my own name and I know that I'd still love you."

Not getting a reply, Ashley looked up from Spencer's neck to find that her lover had fallen asleep, her breath coming in soft puffs while her eyes fluttered under closed lids. She sighed and reverently stroked Spencer's hair back off her face, knowing exactly how lucky she was to have this amazing woman in her life.

"Sweet dreams, Spence," she whispered, pressing a soft kiss to the corner of Spencer's lips before settling down to go to sleep, cuddled up to the woman that she loved more than anything in this universe or the next.

It didn't matter that they were laying horizontally across the mattress or that they were still dressed in their party clothes. As long as she was with Spencer, she could sleep anywhere.

-  
TBC


	16. Take It Easy

**Chapter 16 - Take It Easy**

_"I don't want anybody else, when I think about you I touch myself-" _

"Ashley, turn that off," Spencer ordered, smacking Ashley's feet down off the coffee table.

"Come on, Spence, I need something to take my mind of how hungry I am," Ashley justified, then laughed at the expression she was making in the video as Spencer shoved her boobs in her face. Thank god for Glen's ability to capture humiliating moments on film.

"You ate a whole pizza at eleven o'clock last night." In preparation for her surgery later that day, Ashley was prohibited from eating anything after midnight, so she'd gone a little overboard.

"But you know how active my metabolism is," the brunette whined, putting her feet back up on the coffee table again. "Are you sure I can't just like have a snack or something?"

"No snacks." Spencer turned the television off and continued flitting around the living room, full of nervous energy.

Ashley waited for her to pass by then reached out and grabbed her, pulling her down into her lap.

"Ash, we really don't have time for this," Spencer protested, trying to squirm out of Ashley's arms. "You're having an operation in less than four hours."

"Yes, we do. Please calm down, Spence." She started rubbing her wife's back soothingly. "You don't have to be so worried, you heard what the doctor said, it's a very simple procedure."

"I know, but something could still go wrong!" Spencer fretted, she'd been up all night thinking about what could possibly happen. "You could be allergic to the aesthetic or the doctors could screw up or you could-"

"Don't, Spencer, don't do that. You're going to drive yourself crazy." The truth was, Ashley was just as nervous about the surgery as Spencer was but she wasn't about to admit it and add to her wife's stress level. "Please stop stressing out over this."

Spencer arched an eyebrow. "You're telling me not to stress? Do you remember what you were like when I was in hospital?" Ashley had been a highly stung ball of raw nerves that insisted on being at Spencer's bedside 24/7. Even Spencer had eventually gotten sick if it and banished her from the hospital for an entire day. Ashley swore that she had white hairs from the stress of the experience but Spencer thought that she was totally exaggerating.

Ashley rolled her eyes and held Spencer tighter at the reminder of how close she came to losing her. "That was different."

"Why?"

"Because it was you," Ashley said simply.

"And this is you," Spencer stressed. "If anything happens to you because-"

"It won't," Ashley cut her off, not wanting her to go down that road of blaming herself. "I am going to be fine."

Spencer looked unconvinced. "How do you know that?"

"Because I'm Ashley Davies!" the brunette joked, hoping to get a smile out of the blonde.

"I feel like I'm being selfish, making you go through all this just because I want another baby."

"You're not being selfish! I want this just as much as you do. It would selfish for me not to want to pass on my perfect genes." It was mandatory for any couple endeavouring to use Lakehurst for their services to undergo a DNA test, to screen for an possible genetic abnormalities that may be passed onto any children that would be produced. Ashley's test came back to reveal that her DNA was, for lack of a better word, perfect and in true Ashley style she wouldn't shut up about it. Spencer's test had also revealed the very same thing about her but she was much more humble about it. "Come on, Spence. You're not doing anybody any good by freaking out about this and you know it."

Spencer took a shuddery breath and tucked her head under Ashley's chin. "I know that...I'm just scared."

"I know." She kissed her wife's cheek. "But baby, you got to think about it this way, thousands and thousands of people have way more complicated surgeries than this done everyday. You just need to try and think positively." She tipped Spencer's chin up until she was looking her in the eyes. "Okay?"

"Okay," Spencer agreed. "But it doesn't mean that I can't still worry about you."

Ashley nodded acceptingly. "Of course. And on that note, I think that you should take Declan out to do something fun today."

Spencer frowned. "But I'm supposed to be with you today, that's why dad came around to pick Dec up this morning, remember?"

"I know. But I also know that you're going the spend the entire time I'm under, sitting in an uncomfortable plastic chair, torturing yourself by thinking of everything that could go wrong. So, instead, I want you to take Dec out, to take your mind off it."

"But-"

"They will call you when I'm ready to be picked up and if something bad happens, which it won't, there's nothing you'd be able to do even if you were there," Ashley explained before Spencer could even argue. "Please, Spence, do this for me." She knew that there was no way that she was going to be able to do this if she was worrying about Spencer, worrying about her, the whole time.

"Alright, fine. I guess I could take him to the movies or something."

"Thank you."

-

It had been a long day, even with the welcome distraction of her son, Spencer couldn't keep her mind off her wife. She knew that Declan could sense that something was wrong with his mother and was on his very best behavior as a result.

So when the call from Lakehurst came, Spencer very nearly jumped out of her skin. Thankfully, they were just calling to let her know that the procedure had gone well and that she could come and pick Ashley up.

The surgical wing of the Lakehurst Institute wasn't anything like you'd find in your average hospital. Spencer didn't know whether to be disturbed or comforted by the fact that the halls didn't reek of disinfectant as she walked down them to the nurses station.

She stopped and politely waited for the red haired nurse manning the desk to look away from the computer and look up at her. "Hi, do you know what room Ashley Davies is in, please?"

"Four B," the redhead answered without even having to look it up. "You must be her wife. Lucky girl."

Spencer didn't know if she was talking about Ashley or herself but she still blushed anyway. "Thanks."

She was saved from any further flattery by the approach of Dr. Trent, who was handling their case. "Spencer, how are you?" she greeted the blonde, smiling.

"Good, I'm good."

"Ashley mentioned that you were a little nervous about the procedure."

"Just a little." That was the understatement of the century.

"Well, I'm happy to say that everything went smoothly. She did great."

Spencer let out a relieved sigh. "Good. That's good."

"Now we have an appointment in a week to get you started on your hormone shots, don't we?"

"Yep, next Friday." Spencer couldn't believe that this was finally all happening.

Dr. Trent smiled. "Excellent. Now I should warn you, right now Ashley's on some pretty strong painkillers so she's going to be a little…loopy."

"Loopy?"

"Yeah. But once they wear off, you can just give some over the counter pain meds and she should be fine." The doctor checked her watch. "I have another appointment to get to but if you have an questions or concerns, just call me. You have my number?"

Spencer nodded. "It's in my phone."

"Great. I'll see you next week then," Dr. Trent said, then rushed off to make her appointment at the clinic.

-

Spencer didn't exactly know what she was expecting when she entered Ashley's room, but it certainly wasn't for her wife to be sitting up in bed, happily shovelling chocolate pudding into her mouth.

"Spencer!" Ashley perked up even more at the sight of her wife. "Hi! Do you want some pudding?"

"No, thank you," Spencer said slowly, taking a seat beside the bed.

Ashley just shrugged. "More for me."

"So how're you feeling?"

Ashley set her empty pudding cup aside and turned to her wife, uncaring that she had chocolate smeared all around her mouth. "Oh my god, I feel awesome! I haven't felt this good since that time we had those brownies in Amsterdam!"

Spencer laughed tried to wipe the pudding off the brunette's face with her thumb. Even Declan wasn't this messy when he ate. "That's good."

She was startled when Ashley reached out and grabbed a clump of her hair. "I love your hair! It's like…it's like somebody got the sun and…and put it in one of those machine that make spaghetti with and then stuck it on your head!"

_Oh wow. Dr. Trent really wasn't kidding when she said that Ash'd be out of it._

"And your eyes!" Ashley continued. "They're blue like the ocean. I want to go swimming in them…but not really because I'm too big and it'd be gross and you'd go blind." She suddenly looked fearful. "I don't want you to go blind, Spencer," she whimpered.

Spencer just giggled, finally understanding why Ashley liked it so much when she got drunk. "I'm not going to go blind, Ash," she assured her.

"Good. 'Cause if you were, you wouldn't be able to see me anymore, and then I'd feel really sorry for you."

"How are we doing in here?" The red haired nurse that'd directed Spencer to Ashley's room, came in with a wheelchair. "Ready to go home?"

"I have to leave my puddings?" Ashley pouted, clutching her two remaining unopened pudding cups to her chest.

"You can take them with you," the nurse informed her, looking highly amused.

"Okay."

"Do you think that you can get her into the chair or would you like some help?" the redhead asked Spencer.

Spencer looked at Ashley who was waving her plastic spoon around and make airplane noises. "You'd better help."

"You're pretty," Ashley told the nurse as she and Spencer helped the brunette out of bed and into the waiting wheelchair. "But not as pretty as my Spencer. She's the prettiest girl in the whole world. It's true, I took a poll."

The nurse caught Spencer blushing out of the corner of her eye and shot her an amused grin. "Sorry," Spencer started to apologize for her wife.

"Don't worry about it," the nurse cut her off. "This is nothing. Last week, we had a patient that was convinced that she was a cat for a couple of hours. It wouldn't have been that bad if she hadn't decided that the staff room would make a good litter box."

"Oh…ew."

"Spencer, Spencer." Ashley frantically tugged on the leg of Spencer's jeans to get her attention. "I'm blind!" she gasped, finally noticing that her vision was blurred. Spencer chuckled, grabbed the glasses from the table next to the bed, and slid the black frames onto her wife's face. "You cured me!" Ashley cheered when everything came back into focus. "You're my hero."

"It'll wear off in a couple of hours," the nurse assured her. "So do you have everything?"

_It'd better not wear off before I get some of this on film._ Spencer was inappropriately excited to finally have something embarrassing to hold over Ashley's head. "I think so."

"Well, alright, I'll help you guys out to the parking lot."

-

After a quick stop at the nurses station, for Spencer to sign a few forms, they made it out to Spencer's car.

"This isn't my car," said Ashley, kicking at the silver Lexus' tyres. "My car is yellow and looks like a bumblebee." She laughed, deciding that she like the sound of that word. "Buuuummmblebeeeee."

"It's my car, Ash." Spencer petted her wife's hair while trying not to laugh.

"Oh, you can drive then."

"Thanks."

With the nurse's help, Spencer got Ashley into the vehicle without much trouble. "Thanks, she's going to be able to walk when we get home, right?"

"She should be up to walking short distances while the painkillers are still working, as long as you're helping her. When they wear off, I doubt that she'll want to. She'll know when she's ready to be up and about again."

Spencer nodded doubtfully. She knew how stubborn Ashley could be and she doubted if a little pain in her back was going to keep her down for long.

"Well, good luck with everything," the nurse said, moving the wheelchair back so Spencer could close the car door. "I'm sure that I'll be seeing you again."

"I'm sure you will," Spencer said, getting into her car. "Bye."

Ashley looked up from playing with all the fun buttons. "I like that place, it has good pudding."

Spencer giggled and started the car. "I'll stop and buy you some Snack Packs on the way home."

"You're the best wife ever. Even better than that bitch from the Brady Bunch," Ashley mumbled, feeling drowsy. "And way hotter…and you've got better hair…" she trailed off, falling asleep with her head against the window.

Spencer had a feeling that the next couple of days were going to be very interesting.

-  
TBC


	17. You're Crashing But You're No Wave

**Chapter 17 - You're Crashing But You're No Wave**

"No, Spencer, I'm not doing it," Ashley refused steadfastly.

"Ashley, please," Spencer begged. "I can't do it myself."

Ashley shook her head and didn't budge from her spot on the bed. "Nobody ever said anything about me having to stab you in the ass with needles."

"Ashley, if you don't do it, I'll show that video at our Christmas party," Spencer threatened.

Ashley paled. "You wouldn't."

"Oh, I would." Spencer smirked, thinking of the video she had of her wife trying to open her pudding, while all doped up, by smashing it against a wall which resulted in it, for lack of better word, exploding and covering Ashley in chocolate pudding which she then happily started licking off herself like a cat. "Buuuummmblebeeeee," she mocked.

"Fine," Ashley huffed, jumping up off the bed and stomping over to Spencer and taking the syringe out of her hand. "But what if I do it in the wrong place and hurt you?" she fretted while Spencer undid her pants.

"You won't."

"So I just stick it in anywhere?"

Outside their bedroom Kyla paused upon hearing those words.

"Yeah…uh, ow."

"Sorry, baby. Are you okay?"

"It just stings a little."

Having heard enough of their shenanigans, Kyla burst through the door determined to remind her sister that it was totally inappropriate to have sex when she had guests over. She stopped short when she was confronted with Spencer with her ass hanging out of her pants while Ashley stood behind her sticking a needle into it. "Okay, I don't know what kind of kinky sex game you're playing and I don't want to know-"

"Then maybe you should stop barging into our bedroom uninvited," Ashley snarked at her, pulling the now empty needle from Spencer's ass and taking a step back while her wife pulled her pants up. "You'd think that you would have learned that by now."

"And we're not playing a sex game," Spencer added, buckling her belt. Kyla had walked in on them so many times, she was beyond getting embarrassed by it. "They're my hormone shots, they make me ovulate more, so I'll have more eggs to harvest."

"Oh. So you're going to be like constantly PMS-ing from now on, right?" Kyla concluded, already making plans to spend less time around her sister-in-law for the next couple of weeks.

"What?" Ashley yelped, looking stricken. She really should've paid more attention when Dr. Trent was talking.

"I'm not going to be PMS-ing," Spencer assured Ashley, after putting everything safely away where little hands couldn't get to them. "I'll be fine."

-

It was a few days later when it became apparent that Spencer was not going to escape the hormone therapy without side effects.

She was sitting on the couch with Ashley on one side and Declan on the other, watching a documentary that a friend had made about gay animals in the wild, when she inexplicably burst into tears.

Ashley and Declan looked at each other in alarm, both wondering what the other had done to make the blonde cry.

"Spence, baby, what's wrong?" Ashley asked apprehensively, supportively rubbing circles on her sobbing wife's back.

"Those penguins, their love is so beautiful," she sniffled, unable to get her crying under control. She was referring to the two male penguins who had been mates for over five years and had just adopted a little orphaned baby penguin as their own.

Bewildered by his mommy's sudden mood swing, Declan looked to his momma for instruction, she always knew what to do. "Hug her!" Ashley frantically mouthed to him behind Spencer's back.

"I love you, Mommy," he said, hugging Spencer the best he could with his tiny arms.

Another sob ripped through the emotional blonde. "You're such a good boy," she whimpered, putting her arms around him. "I'm so lucky to have you."

Feeling left out, Ashley joined in the group hug. "I'm lucky to have both of you."

-

Ashley was on a mission. Spencer wanted more chocolate and tissues and she was going to get her chocolate and tissues. Not even her own son could stop her. Declan had clung to her leg and begged not to be left alone with his Mommy but Ashley had to make the hard decision to leave him behind because he was still too young to ride in her Lotus.

Just as she was about to pull into an open parking space, she was cut off by a huge pickup truck that was a painfully obvious penis extension for whomever was driving it.

"ASSHOLE!" she screamed at the truck as she drove past to park in a spot a few cars up. _What kind of douchebag puts racing stripes on a pickup anyway?_ She thought, climbing out of her car and locking it. She looked over at the obnoxious red (with yellow stripes. Ew!) truck and rolled her eyes when she realized she recognized the person climbing out of the cab. _I really should've known._

"Are you stalking me now?" she snarled, stalking up to Aiden.

"No, I work here. I'm a manager," he boasted, proudly tapping the nametag pinned to his chest.

"Your parents must be so proud," Ashley remarked dryly.

"They are." Aiden was too thick to detect the sarcasm in her comment. "So I've been wondering, how's Kyla?"  
_  
Oh, here we go._ "She's fine."

Aiden looked sheepish. "Is she, you know, single?"

"Oh my god, what part of stay away from my family do you not understand?"

"I just figured since you're with Spencer-" Aiden whined.

"You can't have me so you decide to settle for my sister? What the fuck is wrong with you?" Ashley was growing more irate by the second. "Not that she'd ever go near you again, especially now that she's got Glen-"

"Glen?" Aiden laughed in disbelief. "Wow, those Carlins sure love my sloppy seconds."

The sound of Ashley's hand striking him across his rapidly aging face echoed around the busy parking lot. Aiden's temper flared and he seized the much smaller woman's arm roughly.

"I swear to god, you have five seconds to let me go before I kick you in the face," Ashley threatened with a deadly calm. The seconds passed and Aiden's fingers had only tightened their grip. "Seriously Aiden, look at the heels I'm wearing. Do you want to lose an eye? And I can do it too, I'm very flexible." She could totally put her leg behind her head.

Aiden leered at her. "I remember."

Ashley gagged. "Oh god, I think I just threw up in my mouth," she groaned, tasting the bitterness at the back of her throat. _Okay, that's it, enough fucking around._ She lifted her leg and drove her five inch heel down on Aiden's foot.

Aiden howled with pain, collapsing to the ground to cradle his injured foot. Ashley noticed the redness starting to stain his previously pristinely white sneaker. "You got blood on my heel, you douche," she groaned. She was totally going to have to trash these shoes now. She looked around at the crowd of shocked bystanders, mostly middle aged women who were wondering if they should be calling the police. "It's okay," she assured them. "He was trying to rape me." Then she kicked Aiden in the balls for good measure, sending him into a fresh writhe of agony.

At this the women gave her approving smiles while the men winced and turned away, not wanting to look like they were sympathizing with a potential sex offender.

"This is the last time I'm going to say it," Ashley growled at the sobbing manchild. "Stay away from my family."

She stepped over him on her way onto the store. Regardless of that little distraction, she still had a mission to complete, and Spencer was going to get her chocolate and tissues if it killed her.

-  
TBC


	18. Passing The Afternoon

**Chapter 18 - Passing The Afternoon**

"I'm telling you, Kyla, it really wasn't that bad," Spencer said, setting down a mug of hot chocolate on the table in front of her sister in law.

"That's not what Ashley says. You know, she was over at our place crying, after you yelled at her for leaving a wet towel on the bathroom floor."

Spencer cringed. It was true that while she was on her hormone therapy, her moods were a little…out of control and it was especially hard on her wife and son. But thankfully that was all over now and she had slowly gotten back to her old self. "Okay, so maybe it was."

"I bet your mom is pissed that she missed it, how's she enjoying the holiday, anyway?"

"She's loving it, the last postcard we got was from Paris…actually," Spencer trailed off, realizing that they were about due for another postcard from their absent parents. "I'll be back in a minute," she excused herself and got up, going into the den where Ashley was playing video games with Glen. She put her hands against the back of the couch behind her wife. "Ash, whatcha doin'?"

Ashley tilted her head back to look up at the blonde. "Strong arming some hos. Why?"

She looked so cute that Spencer couldn't resist pecking her on the lips. "Can you go and bring the mail in?"

"Now? But I'm in the middle of a mission," Ashley protested, gesturing to her paused game of Grand Theft Auto.

Spencer fixed her with a look and mouthed "Bumblebee."

Ashley sighed and tossed her controller to Glen for him to keep playing in her absence. "Fine." She really had to destroy that disc, but knowing Spencer, she had already made copies.

"Dude," Glen chuckled. "You are so whipped."

"You say that like it's a bad thing."

-

"Electricity bill, water bill, junk mail, postcard from Paula," Ashley said, as she sorted through the mail before handing it to her wife. She paused when she got to a festively decorated flyer. "Reminder for us to start putting our Christmas lights up. What the hell, it's only November!" This kind of forced festivity was one of the only things she hated about living in their neighbourhood. "Can't we just put a string of lights up along the fence and be done with it?"

Spencer looked up from inspecting the postcard from her parents. "You know that we can't do that. The neighbours aren't happy unless our street is so lit up that can be seen from space."

"This competition is so lame. I hate it," Ashley said in a disgruntled tone.

"You only hate it because you never win," Spencer corrected her. Every year, their street had a competition to see who could put on the best light display at Christmas, that had become somewhat of a tourist attraction for locals and the winner was determined by a committee of residents.

"We never win because the Hendersons are homophobic."

"They're married gay men, Ashley, how can they possibly be homophobic?"

"Gay men hate lesbians, Spencer, everybody knows that."

"Everybody knows what?" Kyla asked, coming back from checking on Holly and Declan, with Glen hot on her heels. Talk about whipped.

"That gay guys hate lesbians, apparently," Spencer said dryly. "I know that I'm probably going to regret asking this, but why?"

"Firstly, because we don't worship cock like they do. That's why fag hags are always straight girls, because they bond over their love of dick-"

"Having a little penis envy there, Ashley?" Glen joked.

Spencer grinned when Ashley wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her closer against her side. "Believe me," the blonde said, affectionately scratching her nails across her wife's ridiculously toned abdomen. "She has nothing to be envious about."

"Seriously. Mine's bigger than your's and I have the advantage of being able to put it on and take it off whenever I want to," Ashley bragged with a cocky smirk.

Glen grimaced. He really had just walked into that one, hadn't he. "Oh, I so didn't need to hear that."

Beside him, Kyla just shrugged. Once you'd actually seen them in action, hearing about it wasn't so bad.

"And secondly," Ashley continued from where she'd been so rudely interrupted. "They're jealous that we can be more creative when it comes to sex, because we've got three holes to play with, instead of just two."

There were confused faces all around as the other three adults tried to figure out what Ashley was implying. Taking pity on her wife, Ashley leaned in and whispered an explanation into her ear. "Ohhhhh." Spencer flushed bright red. "Ewwww."

"Anyway, I refuse to give in to their ridiculous demands." Ashley crumpled the flyer up in her fist and tossed it at the paper recycling bucket. The paper ball bounced on the tiled floor when she come up a few feet short. _Like I need a five hundred dollar gift card, anyway._ "I refuse to take any part in this farce."

Spencer looked at her dubiously. She had no doubt that once Ashley competitive nature kicked in, she'd be putting plastic reindeer up on the roof in no time.

"I'm not doing it!" she protested, hurt that Spencer was doubting her. "I'm not."

_We'll see._

-  
TBC


	19. Everything I Try To Do

**New OC - Steve Henderson played by Michael Urie.**

* * *

**Chapter 19 - Everything I Try To Do, Nothing Seems To Turn Out Right  
**

Ashley's resolve not to put up any Christmas lights lasted for exactly three days. Longer than any of them had expected from her. But when Declan had looked at her with curious blue eyes and asked why they weren't making their house pretty like everybody else was, she had finally broken.

The very next day she had enlisted Glen's help and bought over five thousand dollars worth of decorations at Home Depot.

"So we're just going to let them do all the work?" Kyla asked, looking out the window to watch her boyfriend feed the lighting cables up to her sister who was on the roof. "We're not even going to offer to help?"

Spencer chuckled at Kyla's naivety. "Oh no. She's already turned Glen into her bitch. It's really best to just stay out of her way. Besides, someone needs to watch the kids."

"I still can't believe that you're letting Ashley traipse around on the roof."

As if on cue, there was a muffled curse and then a cringe-inducing thump when Ashley hit the ground. A few seconds later, the brunette was on her feet with her arms in the air. "I'm good! I'm okay!"

Spencer let out the breath she'd been holding. Thanking God that she'd managed to convince Ashley to stick to the roof of the first floor and that they had incredibly soft grass for her to land on.

"What is that? The second time she's fallen off the roof today?" Kyla said, amazed at her sister's resilience as Ashley started back up the ladder.

"Third. She was up there this morning before you guys got here."

Kyla's eyes widened. "Well, as long as she keeps landing on her head, she should be alright. I mean, she's been living without a brain for a while now, so it's not like she's going to injure anything important."

Spencer smiled faintly at the joke about her wife's apparent lack of intelligence. "She's not stupid, Ky. You know why she acts like she does." Ashley was quite capable of behaving like a mature, reasonably intelligent adult, she just chose not to.

"Yeah, I know," Kyla said, looking apologetic. "So aren't you afraid that she's going to like snap her neck or something?"

"Honestly, I'm more worried about her electrocuting herself."

-

It had taken her two weeks, five falls off the roof and close to ten thousand dollars, but finally Ashley's vision was very nearly complete. There was one vital piece missing, but once it was delivered that afternoon, there would be no way that she wasn't winning this stupid competition.

She'd just finished taking the trash out and was standing on the sidewalk admiring her handiwork when the clinking of glass bottles from across the street caught her attention and made her turn around. It was Steve Henderson, her arch nemesis.

Steve folded his arms across his chest and glared at her, making it clear that the feeling was more than mutual. Ashley met his challenging gaze, refusing to be the first to flinch and look away.

_Stupid Steve with his stupid hair and stupid argyle sweater vest._

She didn't know how long they'd been standing there, having their stare down for, but it was long enough for her eyes to start watering yet she still refused to back down. Even when her phone started vibrating against her hip, she didn't look away. She flipped it open and put it too her ear while smirking at the man across the street.

"Ashley, come inside, you look ridiculous," Spencer ordered. She would've gone outside and physically dragged her wife in but she was in the middle of trying to get an extremely uncooperative Declan to put his socks on.

"But-"

"Now."

"Fine," Ashley huffed, disgruntledly snapping her phone shut. She sent a clear message with her eyes that this wasn't over, before turning her back on Steve and flouncing her way back up the driveway. Oh no, it definitely wasn't over.

-

It had taken them an hour to get it into the perfect position, but finally, with the arrival of the robotic dancing polar bear, Ashley felt that her victory was assured and they could all finally relax.

They were all kicking back in the living room where Glen and Kyla were trying to teach the children the basics of Monopoly (Holly didn't understand why they didn't just play it on the computer, like normal people.) while Spencer gave Ashley a well earned shoulder massage.

It should've just been a peaceful night with the family but something was bothering Ashley. She could hear some horrible droning voices singing Christmas carols and she couldn't figure out where they were coming from but she didn't dare mention it to the others, in case the voices were actually only in her head.

Suddenly a whole lot of light was shed on the situation. The brightness streaming in through the front facing windows was very nearly blinding.

"What the f-" She remember the presence of Holly and Declan just in time. "hell?"

They all rushed to the windows to investigate.

"Oh, it's so beautiful," Kyla gasped at the sight of the Hendersons house all lit up.

"Dude," Glen muttered, already dreading what was to come. "We are so screwed."

Apart from being decorated with enough multicolored lights to turn night into day, the Hendersons also had a Nativity scene, complete with a bunch robotic carolers serenading the baby Jesus.  
_  
No! I am not losing to them again. This is my year!_ Ashley grabbed Glen by the arm and dragged him off towards the basement. They had nefarious plans to make and she didn't want Spencer to be charged as an accessory, should she overhear them.

-

"What are we going to do?" Glen questioned, a little disturbed by the unhinged look in his sister-in-law's eyes. "Doesn't the judging begin in like a day? We're never going to be able to top that."

He watched Ashley pace around the basement, wondering why she had found it necessary to drag him down there. He was totally starting to regret volunteering to help out, this was supposed to be fun!

Ashley stopped and looked at him with a deadly kind of calm. "It's okay, I know exactly what we have to do."

Glen gulped. He wasn't sure if he liked the sound of that.

-

"Are you sure that Spencer's not going to miss you?" Glen asked, as Ashley climbed into his car at exactly 1:50 the next morning. He followed her instructions to pick her up at the corner so they wouldn't be seen on her street. If their women found out about what they were doing, they'd be screwed.

"Trust me, she's not going to be waking up anytime soon. I wore her out good." Ashley smiled contentedly, it had most definitely been a good night. "What about Kyla, did you put the sleeping pills in her food like I told you too?"

"You were serious about that? I thought you were joking." It was times like this that Ashley scared the shit out of him.

"So…you didn't give her the pills?"

"No. I didn't drug my girlfriend, thank you very much. She's a heavy sleeper anyway, she won't even notice I'm gone."

Ashley shook her head in disgust at Glen's reluctance to do what needed to be done. "You wouldn't have lasted two seconds in the army." She pulled one of the two wooden baseball bats, she had in her sports bag, out and handed it to Glen before pulling on her ski mask. "Let's just do this."

-  
TBC


	20. Still Suspicion Holds You Tight

**Chapter 20 - Still Suspicion Holds You Tight  
**

It was the squeal heard around the neighborhood. "Our nativity scene!"

Spencer was jolted out of her sleep by the girlish scream. She managed to free herself from her wife's possessive embrace and pulled on a robe to cover herself as she went to the window to investigate. She gasped as she observed the devastation that he befallen their street.

"Baby, come back to bed," Ashley groaned, her arm moving across the bed, searching for Spencer's warm body.

"Ash, wake up, you have got to see this."

Ashley took her time getting out of bed, still exhausted by her nocturnal activities.

"Why are you wearing clothes?" Spencer questioned, eyeing the tank top and boxers the brunette was wearing, suspiciously. Ashley had most definitely been naked when they'd fallen asleep the night before.

"Uh, yeah, I couldn't sleep so I went and watched tv for a while in the den." Ashley rubbed her sleepy eyes. "What's the matter?"

Spencer gestured to the window. "Look."

Ashley looked out the window. "Someone silly stringed my polar bear!" she gasped in 'outrage'._ I so should've been an actress._

"It looks like the Hendersons got the worst of it," Spencer observed the group of concerned neighbors gathering on the lawn across the street. "You should probably get over there."

"Why?"

"Because it'll look suspicious if you don't," Spencer pointed out. She wouldn't put it past the men to put all the blame for this on her wife.

"You have a point," Ashley said, slowly. _She's so smart._ "I'd better get dressed first."

-

"You did this," Dave, Steve's husband, immediately accused Ashley as she joined the group that was forming on their lawn.

"Um, my place got hit too, brainstrust," Ashley pointed out. As part of her plan to throw suspicion of herself, Ashley and Glen had vandalized the displays of several other houses, including her own.

Dave glared at her, unamused. "You had some lights torn down and a bit of silly string sprayed around. They beheaded our baby Jesus!" Along with several of the robot carolers and all of the wise men. They'd made for great batting practice.

"I think that we should call the police," Steve announced.

"I think that the LAPD has better things to do," scoffed Bob Dyer, putting his arm around his wife who nodded in agreement.

"Seriously," Ashley agreed. "You guys need to get over it, we still have all day to fix our displays up." Once the competition began, working on your display was expressly forbidden.

"This." Dave gestured to his trashed surroundings. "Is blatant sabotage and it's a serious matter."

"Sabotage?" Ashley repeated in a disbelieving tone. "Please. It was probably just some kids looking to mess things up."

"Perhaps you're raising your son to be a little hoodlum," Steve said indignantly. He smugly put a hand on the shoulder of their eight year old Korean son that they'd adopted off the black market. "But the rest of the children on this street are above this kind of reckless vandalism."

_Did he just call Dec a hoodlum!?!_ "Hey, my kid could kick your kid's ass!" Ashley shouted angrily, before realizing that that argument wasn't really helping in this situation.

"My point exactly."

"Shut up," Ashley seethed, furious at being outwitted.

"Would you look at that," Dave remarked sarcastically. "An angry lesbian. I've never seen one of those before."

Ashley's eyes narrowed. "Yeah, we're almost as rare as bitchy queens. The heteros are getting quite the show today."

Tina Hargrove, a single lady who lived at the end of the street, cleared her throat and chimed in. "I think that Ashley's right," she said, bringing the conversation back to the topic at hand. "Most of the damage done can be repaired before the deadline. The police shouldn't have to be bothered with this."

The majority of the concerned residents agreed.

"See," said Ashley. "You two need to suck it up and stop being so prissy about Christmas decorations. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a polar bear to wash."

-

"Can you believe that they wanted to call the cops?" Ashley said, after relaying what had happened back to Spencer. "Just because somebody took the off wise men's head with a baseball bat…"

"How you know that they used a baseball bat?"

Ashley froze in the middle of cutting up a banana "Ahhhh, well it's pretty obvious. I mean, remember how I watched all twenty seasons of CSI last year? That trained me to notice those kind of things," she lied, already knowing that it was pointless. Spencer could always see right through her.

That was all the confirmation that Spencer needed. She approached Ashley from behind and softly put a hand on her shoulder. "I know that you did it." She felt her wife tense under her hand.

"Uhhh, did what?" _At least she doesn't sound too mad.  
_  
Spencer just smiled and kissed the back of Ashley's neck. "My little vandal," she said fondly. "Just don't get caught, you're too pretty for prison."

"Wait, you're seriously not mad at me?"

_She's been so stressed out these last couple of weeks, she deserved the chance to blow off some steam….I just wish she'd done it in a less blasphemous way._ "No. But don't do it again, okay?"

"Okay," Ashley agreed easily. As long as everything went to plan, she wouldn't have to.

"Good." Spencer kissed her on the cheek and left to go and check on Declan.

Ashley grinned giddily as she watched her go. _I definitely have the coolest wife in the world._

-  
TBC


	21. Hello, My Treacherous Friends

**New OC - Toni Dawson played by Leslie Grossman.**

**

* * *

**

**Chapter 21 - Hello, My Treacherous Friends **

It was without a doubt the ugliest sweater that Ashley had ever seen. Fire engine red with a lopsided reindeer face and a tiny bell that would jingle when she walked. And Spencer wanted her to wear it. To their Christmas party. In front of their family and mutual friends.

"Ashley, stop staring at it and put it on. People are going to be arriving soon." Thanks to the fact that their street was so clogged at night with sightseers in the weeks leading up to Christmas, they were forced to have their party in the day. It was humiliating.

"But it so ugly," Ashley protested, already knowing that she was fighting a loosing battle. She was going to be wearing this ugly sweater, whether she liked it or not.

Spencer pouted and resorted to emotional blackmail. "If you loved me you'd wear it."

Although she knew that there was no way that her wife was being serious, Ashley put the fugly sweater on in record time. "There. Are you happy now?"

"Ecstatic."

"I'll bet." Ashley rolled her eyes at her reflection in their full length mirror. At least she didn't make her put on the Santa hat. Sighed and dropped down onto the bed. She fiddled with the bell on her sweater as she watched Spencer getting ready._ I may as well bring this up now before it's too late._ "Hey Spence?"

Spencer paused in the middle of putting on her snowman earrings. "Yeah?"

"I was thinking about what we're getting Dec for Christmas."

"The Betta fish?" Not wanting to spoil their son too much, they usually kept it pretty low key with the gifts during the holidays. His birthday however was a completely different story. Last year, Ashley had spent over a hundred grand on the fireworks alone.

"I was just thinking that maybe we should get him something else to go along with it."

"Like what?" Spencer asked, sitting on the bed next to her wife.

Ashley shifted nervously and mumbled. "Like maybe some karate lessons or something."

"Karate?"

"Or Tae Kwan Do," Ashley rushed to clarify. "Or maybe one of those cool mixed martial arts. They're pretty badass."

"But he's only four years old," said Spencer, trying to follow the brunette's line of thinking.

Ashley shrugged and looked away from her lover's inquisitive blue eyes. "I know that. But he'll be going to school soon and then I won't be able to be there to protect him all the time, so it would make me feel better if I knew that he knew how to take care of himself," she rambled, feeling embarrassed.

"That's so sweet!" Spencer squealed, drawing Ashley's eyes back up from the bedspread. "Of course we can do that."

"You really think it's a good idea?"

"Yes. I mean, I'm not a big fan of violence but I do want Dec to be able to take care of himself and martial arts are supposed to teach self discipline and responsibility. I think it's a great idea."

Ashley smiled in relief. "Cool."

"Now that we have that settled, can you please go and get our son dressed for our party?" Spencer turned and grabbed the large plastic garment bag from the bed and handed to Ashley who looked at the costume inside with disgust.

"Oh, Spencer, no!" There was no way that she was going to let her little boy parade around in front of all their friends in an elf costume.

"He likes it!"

"Because he's too young to know any better! Spencer, he's going to look ridiculous… even more ridiculous than we do."

"Exactly," Spencer chuckled at her own cleverness. "And the pictures will make excellent blackmail material to keep him in line when he hits his rebellious teenager phase."

Although she doubted that their perfect little boy would ever go through a rebellious stage, Ashley had to admire the brilliance of the blonde's plan. "You're sneaky," she said with a smirk. "I like it."

-

With Arthur and Paula (mostly Arthur) insisting on taking care of the food for the party, Spencer and Ashley were free to greet the guests as they arrived. Well, Spencer greeted the guests while Ashley slouched against the wall, sulking because Glen had made fun of her ugly sweater.

"Hey guys," Spencer cheerfully greeted the new arrivals, Lily Zee and her girlfriend Beth.

"Hi Spence." Lily was pulled into an enthusiastic hug by the blonde. "Ashley, your yard looks amazing."

If it was possible, Ashley's face darkened even more and she started muttering angrily under her breath.

"Don't mind her," Spencer explained, ushering the two women into the house. "She's just a little annoyed because they've called off the competition this year."

"Oh, is that because Dad and Aunty Ash sabotaged those other people's entries?" Holly asked, joining the small group that was gathered in the foyer.

Ashley pushed herself of the wall and advanced on her niece. "How do you know about that?"

"I overheard Dad telling Mom about it." His Catholic guilt getting the better of him, Glen had confessed all to Kyla. "It's why he's been sleeping on the couch for the past week."

"Traitor. I knew I shouldn't of trusted him." Ashley narrowed her eyes at Glen, who immediately looked terrified and started looking for an escape route. "Excuse me, ladies."

"So." Spencer turned to her guests, with a smile plastered across her face, as her wife chased her brother through the house. "Who wants a drink?"

-

"So, Spence, when are we going to see you back at work?" Lily asked, sidling up to Spencer with an extra cup of eggnog in hand which she handed to the grateful blonde. "The world needs another Spencer Carlin production."

"I highly doubt that," Spencer countered modestly. She loved what she did but she didn't kid herself into thinking that her work was anything special. "Besides, between Dec and everything with the new baby, I doubt I'm going to have the time to start any new projects."

"Okay, so you don't have time to start anything new but what about joining in on something old?"

"Such as?" Spencer asked, her interest peaked.

"I need a narrator for my new show, it's a miniseries about this girl who came out to her family who are members of the Westboro Baptist Church and everything that she went through. You know, they tied her to a bed for three days while they performed an exorcism on her?" Lily shuddered. "And they say that we're the ones that are going to go to hell."

"Why don't you narrate it?"

"I would but I'm just thinking that your voice would suit the story more."

Spencer knew that narrating wasn't exactly hard or time consuming work. It would be two days in a sound booth, three at the maximum. "Can I think about it and get back to you?"

"Of course."

-

"You really went all out on this party, didn't you?" Ashley's boss, Toni Dawson said. "I mean, the midget dressed as an elf is a great touch. Do you think we'd be able to hire him for the office Christmas party next year?"

Ashley looked over to where Cedric was attempting to teach Declan and Holly how to do the robot. "That's not a midget, that's my son."

"So he'll be available then?"

Ashley just shook her head, amused. She was convinced that Toni didn't live on the same planet as the rest of them but it seemed to work for her, so Ashley wasn't going to complain. Glen was still cowering in an upstairs bathroom so she had abandoned the chase, for now, and come down stairs to put in the mandatory face time with her boss.

"Ladies," Arthur appeared in front of them, a tray of fresh hors d'oeurves in hand. "Taste these. I picked up the recipe while we were in France."

With Toni groaning in almost orgasmic delight over the taste of the food, beside her, Ashley settled for a more subtle approach to expressing her opinion. "They taste great, Mr.C, as always."

"Thank you, Ashley." Arthur bowed his head graciously while Toni horded a handful of canapés for herself before Arthur ducked off to spread the joy of his cooking amongst the other guests.

"Mmm, I could spread him on toast and eat him for breakfast," Toni remarked, ogling Arthur's butt as he walked away.  
_  
Gah!_ Ashley cringed. "One, that's my father-in-law. Two, he's old and three, that's disgusting and I don't need to hear it. Ever."

Toni just shrugged, unaffected. "Okay, maybe I have something that you do want to hear then."

"And that is?"

"Kelly wants you to do her next album. She asked for you specifically."

"I'm on vacation, why does nobody seem remember that?"

"Oh, honey child, none of this is happening until well into next year," Toni assured her. "And you do remember earning millions of dollars the last time you two worked together, don't ya?"

"Yeah, I remember." Ashley scratched the back of her head. As far as musicians went, you'd be hard pressed to find one that was easier to work with in the studio. "I'll think about it. But if I do this, I never have to work with Sierra Reynolds again," she bargained.

"Done."

-

"-the beaches in Greece were amazing," Paula regaled the assembled group of women with tales of her extended European vacation. "We went swimming at this little beach in southern Crete. The water was so blue and clean! I've never seen anything like it."

Spencer felt a tap on her shoulder and turned away from her mother's riveting story to find Ashley standing there with an expectant smile on her face. "What?"

Ashley grinned mischievously and pointed to the mistletoe that was pinned to the wall above Spencer's head. "How much of that stuff did you put up?" Spencer questioned, giving her wife a rather tame kiss, conscious of the many people in the room. This was the seventh time that day that Ashley had caught her under the mistletoe.

Ashley just shrugged and waited until Spencer turned back to the conversation, to unpin the mistletoe from the wall. As if she'd just leave it hanging around and run the risk of Spencer being forced to kiss someone that wasn't her.

She felt tugging on her pants and looked down at the pointy hat covered head of her son. "What's up, Dec?"

"He came out," Declan reported, pointing at Glen as he tried to sneak through the party to get to the kitchen. Ashley had tasked the boy with keeping an eye out for his uncle and to report any sighting back to her; Declan had taken this assignment very seriously.

Ashley smirked and petted her boy's head. " Good boy." She rewarded Declan with a king sized Snickers bar that she'd been keeping in her pocket. "Go and play with Holly. I'll be back in little bit. I have to go and have a little talk with your uncle."

-  
TBC


	22. New Year, New Life

**Chapter 22 - New Year, New Life**

"So you're not drinking tonight?" Glen asked, looking from his beer to his sister's Coke. He'd been looking forward to seeing Spencer get hammered on New Years Eve for months but now it looked like he was in for nothing but disappointment.

"No, I'd prefer not to have a hangover for tomorrow," Spencer replied, knowing that her brother would like nothing more to see her get drunk and make a fool out of herself. "Are you coming?"

Glen shifted uncomfortably. "I don't know. Don't you think it'll be a little weird with all four of us there?"

"No. Me and Ash are fine with it and I know that Ky wants you there."

"She does?" Glen croaked, almost choking on his beer in surprise. Kyla hadn't mentioned any of this to him.

Spencer nodded, looking around the crowded bar for any sign of their significant others. "She hasn't asked you because she doesn't want you to feel obligated to be there. She remembers how bad you are with medical procedures." Glen had passed out while Holly was being born. Twice. Luckily, Kyla had the foresight to ask Spencer to be her birthing partner, so it didn't really matter…except for when the midwife tripped over him.

"Well, it's not like there's going to be any blood or anything, right?" Glen asked weakly, looking pale at the thought.

"No, Glen, there's not going to be any blood." Unless something went horribly, horribly wrong. "The way Dr. Trent explained it, is that she's just going to use a special needle to implant the fertilized egg in Kyla's uterus."

Glen squirmed at the mention of his girlfriend's lady parts and chugged the rest of his beer.

"It's a pretty quick process. It should only take about ten minutes," Spencer finished, smirking at her brother's queasiness.

"What will?" Kyla asked, joining the siblings at the bar.

"I was just explaining what was going to happen tomorrow." The blonde frowned when her wife didn't appear with her sister.

"Oh yeah," Kyla said slowly, turning to her boyfriend. "You don't have to come if you don't want to."

"I do," Glen blurted. "I mean, if you want me to-"

"Okay."

Spencer tried not to laugh at them and their awkward attempts at communication. Those two had been acting like love struck teenagers ever since their weekend in the mountains.

"Where's Ash?" she enquired, breaking up Glen and Kyla's staring session.

Kyla flashed her a cryptic smile. "You'll see."

No sooner than she had uttered those words, the MC up on the stage dismissed the last aspiring singer and announced that he had a special treat for the audience tonight and Ashley took to the stage.

"She's going to sing?" Spencer squealed in delighted surprise. As a rule, Ashley avoided public performances at all cost because every time she did one, new rumors would pop up about her moving beyond her career as a producer and releasing an album.

But apparently tonight, she had decided to risk it, as she dedicated the song to her wife.

-

Inspired by the audience's reaction to Ashley's highly spirited performance, Glen decided to try his hand at wooing his girl through a love song dedication. Before Kyla could stop him, he hopped up on stage, used his position as the owner of the bar to usurp the next performer's spot and started up his own, very special, rendition of 'Everlasting Love'.

"I told him that he shouldn't sing in public," Spencer took a break from making out with her wife to say. She cringed when Glen's voice cracked and the audience started to boo him

"He just shouldn't sing," Ashley muttered, mortified on Glen's behalf. "Ever."

Kyla, on the other hand, was eating it up and appeared to be the only person in the entire bar that was enjoying her boyfriend's performance.

"Okay, I can't take anymore of this," Ashley finally said, there was no point in hanging around and watching Glen make an even bigger public spectacle of himself. "Come dance with me." She took Spencer by the hand to lead her through the crowd to the room that had non-officially been reserved for couples that evening.

She pushed open the soundproofed glass door that separated the room from the rest of the bar and twirled Spencer as they joined the other couples in slow dancing to the melodic acoustic song that the DJ was playing.

"This song sounds vaguely familiar," Ashley mused, her arms lazily resting around Spencer's hips.

"It should, you wrote it, remember?"

Ashley bit her lip, pretending to be putting some effort into trying to remember. "Oh, that's right. I wrote it about you."

"You write all your love songs about me," Spencer chuckled, tightening her arms around her wife's neck.

Ashley nodded, not even bothering to protest. "You're my muse."

Spencer bit her lip and pressed her forehead against Ashley's. "So are you nervous about tomorrow?"

"No." Ashley smirked. "Why would I be nervous? I'm not going to be the one with her legs up in stirrups."

Spencer almost rolled her eyes at the expected glib remark. "You know that's not what I meant."

"I know, but the answer is still the same. I'm not nervous. In fact, I'm kind of excited."

Spencer pulled back to look at her. "Really?"

"Yeah. Look, I know that when we started all this I was a little…apprehensive about having another baby but now I'm really looking forward to it." Especially since neither of them was going to have to go through the ickyness of pregnancy. "I'll get to do all the stuff I wish I had done with Dec when he was a newborn." For the first two weeks after Declan had been born, Ashley hardly ever held him, or touched him, for that matter. He was so tiny and fragile and she had so little confidence in her abilities as a parent ,that she was terrified that she'd screw up and break him or drop him or something. "The baby's probably going to have your eyes, did you know?"

"How do you know that?"

"When I went in for the bone marrow extraction I was talking to Dr. Trent about it. She said that I have a recessive gene for blue eyes, so there's a ninety percent chance that our baby will have blue eyes too." And Ashley couldn't be happier about it.

They swayed to the music, content to just bask in each others presence. Until Ashley broke the comfortable silence. "I think that this is going to be a very good year for us."

"Well this past year hasn't sucked dramatically either. Adoption drama notwithstanding. We're lucky."

"I'm lucky," Ashley murmured affectionately. She knew that everything she had, she owed to Spencer. If they had never met, she had no doubt that her life would be very different, and by different she meant worse. "So there's ten minutes 'til midnight, what do you say we go out to the car and ring in the new year the right way?"

"I thought you'd never ask."

-

Standing around in a sterile white room with your sister's hoo-ha exposed to the world was never the most comfortable situation to be in and Glen's uncontrollable babbling was just making it worse.

He was leaning against the far wall, looking decidedly uncomfortable, and ranting about the Laker's chances of taking out the championship this year, ignoring the fact that the other three occupants of the room didn't give a flying fuck about basketball. He desperately wished his daughter was there, so that at least one of the female's would understand what he was talking about.

"Sorry to keep you all waiting." Dr. Trent came breezing into the room with a covered tray in hand.

"Oh, thank god," Ashley blurted out. If she had to put up with one more second of Glen's ramblings, she would've done something drastic.

"The nurses tell me that you're all ready to go," Dr. Trent said, ducking her head under the sheet that protected Kyla's 'modesty'. "This all looks good. I'll just glove up and we'll get underway."

"So this thing where you turn the bone marrow into sperm, how does that work?" Glen inquired. _Soon the women won't need us at all!  
_  
"It's not so much the bone marrow but the stem cells that we harvest from it," The doctor explained, snapping on a pair of white latex gloves. "Then we treat the cells with vitamins and hormones in the lab. Stem cells really fascinating things, they can become almost anything. They can be used to repair damaged organs, even to grow entirely new ones. When you compare what we do here to growing a fully functioning heart from scratch, it's not so impressive."

She sat on a stool and rolled it into position. "Anyway, then we use the treated stem cells to fertilize the eggs. To be honest, our tech's were a surprised be how, for lack of a better word, virile you turned out to be, Ashley."

Ashley stood up straighter at the unexpected revelation, filled with pride. "Really?" she asked, a smug smile forming.

Dr. Trent nodded. "Usually it takes a few tries to achieve fertilization, that's why we harvest multiple eggs, but your's took on the first attempt." She pulled the green sheet off the tray and picked up the pre-prepared syringe to check the level of the fluid inside.

"You're going to stick that up her?" Glen yelped, going deathly white and almost fainting at the sight of the huge needle.

"What?" Kyla squealed, leaning forward to try and peer over the sheet covering her legs. "What is it?"

"Just relax, Kyla," Dr. Trent tried to soothe her. She set the syringe down and turned on the ultrasound machine.

"Seriously, Ky," Spencer said, taking her sister-in-law's hand. "It's not that bad." She squeezed the smaller woman's hand and gave her a reassuring smile while Dr. Trent squirted the self-warming gel onto Kyla's abdomen and used the probe to spread it around.

Spencer felt Kyla's hand trembling faintly in her own and gestured to her brother to comfort his girlfriend. Glen gulped and shook his head, fearfully. He was more than fine where he was. But when Spencer repeated the silent request, this time much more aggressively, he complied. An angry Spencer was a scary Spencer.

"Okay," Dr. Trent began, locking the probe in place so she could have both hands free to perform the procedure. "The ultrasound showing me your uterus is going to make the implantation easier," She explained and picked up the needle again. "Now, you're going to feel a slight pinching sensation."

Ashley tightened her arms around Spencer's waist and pressed herself against her wife's back, her brown eyes locked on the ultrasound's monitor. She would've been holding Kyla's hand too, if the thought of actually touching her sister while she was being impregnated with her baby didn't creep her out.

"There," said Dr. Trent, after a few tense moments. She withdrew the syringe and set it back down on the tray. "All done. That wasn't so bad, was it?"

Looking like he was about to throw up at any given moment, Glen could merely shake his head, while his girlfriend actually managed to smile. "It wasn't as bad as I'd been imagining it to be."

Dr. Trent smiled. "These things rarely are." She peeled off her gloves and stood. "Kyla, you're going to have to stay in that position for another thirty minutes. A nurse will come in and tell you when the time is up."

"So, um, that's it?" Ashley spoke up, nervously. "The baby's in there?"

"The embryo has been implanted, she's going to have to take a pregnancy test in about ten days to make sure that it's taken." The doctor paused to smile softly at the attractive young couple. "But I feel pretty confident in saying this; Congratulations, you're pregnant."

-  
TBC


	23. Bad Night, Good Morning

**Chapter 23 - Bad Night, Good Morning**

_The baby was crying. How was she supposed to concentrate on her work when the baby was crying?_

"Spencer!" Ashley yelled, throwing her pen down in frustration. "Spence?"

There was no answer and the newborn's cries just kept getting louder.

"Why would she leave me alone with it?" Ashley muttered to herself. She resigned herself to having to abandon her very important work to go and check on the wailing child. "I told her not to. She knows that I'm not good with babies."

Ashley entered the nursery, not even bothering to be put off by the overabundance of pink that colored the walls. She was immune to it now. She passed by the broken crib that had been abandoned in a dark corner, as if it wasn't even there, and approached the white crib in the middle of the room, only to find it empty.

"Where is she?"

"Why did you do it, Ashley?"

She turned at the unexpected intrusion and found her father standing in the doorway, wearing his stage make up. "Daddy? What-"

Raife looked at her with cold, accusing eyes. "Why'd you kill her?"

Ashley shuddered as an icy hand trailed down her back. She spun around and came face to face with herself.

Ashley jolted awake with a start and ran a hand over her sweaty face. This wasn't the first time she'd had this dream. It seemed like she had been having it every time she'd closed her eyes since New Years Day but the last part was new and she didn't like it. She much preferred it when her double popped up in her sex dreams rather than her nightmares.

Though she was hardly a believer in dreams having any true meaning, it was enough to unsettle her and keep her from getting back to sleep.

"Fuck," she whispered in frustration, as she attempted to extricate herself from Spencer's arms without waking the younger woman. Ashley knew that if she stayed in bed then she'd eventually wake her wife up and then Spencer would want to know what was wrong, then Ashley would feel like an idiot when she had to explain that she couldn't sleep because she'd had a bad dream. That excuse was only acceptable when Declan used it.

Spencer whimpered in her sleep and unconsciously reached out for her absent wife. Ashley knelt beside the bed and captured the searching hand, kissing the back of it and holding it until Spencer had settled back down.

She waited until she was sure that Spencer wouldn't wake up before she released her hand and stealthily exited the bedroom.

-

Following the same routine as the past few nights, Ashley entered the den, flopped down on the cushy leather couch, and flipped on the tv.

"Gah!" she exclaimed when the first thing that appeared on the screen was a bunch of singing puppets and Liza Minelli's floating head, definitely not conductive to combating nightmares. She quickly changed the channels until she settled on a mindless comedy and settled down for the rest of the night.

A few minutes later, Barney came ambling into the room, his tail wagging lazily.

"Hey there, Barney Boo." Ashley reached down and petted her dog's head. Barney licked her hand and unsuccessfully attempted to join her on the couch.

Ashley took pity on the big dog and helped him up. The arthritis had taken it's toll but Barney had really never been the same since Luca had been run over by Kyla a careless driver and AJ had run away. He'd really loved those cats.

She settled back down with her arm slung over Barney and her head resting on his furry back.

"It's easy for you, huh," Ashley said, when he was asleep within seconds. She had to admit that she sometimes envied the easy life that Barney lived, all he seemed to do these days is eat and sleep. Not that would Ashley would ever want to switch places, she was perfectly happy. If only she could get rid of these freaky nightmares then life would be perfect.

-

When Spencer woke up and Ashley wasn't there, she wasn't all that surprised. She knew exactly where her wife would be.

After a brief stop in the kitchen to turn on the coffee maker, she entered the den and was confronted with the adorable sight of Ashley curled up on the couch with their family pet. Spencer almost didn't have the heart to wake her but Ashley's position didn't look all that comfortable and Spencer didn't want her waking up with a stiff neck which, knowing Ashley, she would be complaining about for the rest of the day.

"Ash." Spencer gently shook the sleeping brunette's shoulder. "Ash, wake up."

"Harwah?" Ashley grumbled. Barely half awake she lifted her head to look up at her wife. "Oh, hi."

"Hi," Spencer said with an amused smile, she adjusted Ashley's glasses that were sitting askew on her face. "What's the matter?" The last time Ashley had suffered from insomnia was in the weeks leading up to their wedding.

"Nothing."

Spencer tilted her head, looking unconvinced.

"Seriously, Spence." Ashley pushed herself into a sitting position. "I just couldn't sleep and I didn't want to wake you up so I came down here."

"Are you sure it's not about the baby?" Spencer asked, nervously playing with her fingers. "If your having second thoughts-"

"No!" Ashley shook her head, laughing to herself. "It's nothing like that. Really. I'm fine."

"Okay," Spencer relented. "If you say so."

"I do."

"I'm gonna go and wake Dec up," Spencer moved on, dropping the subject for the time being. "Coffee should be ready in a few minutes."

Ashley very nearly drooled at the mention of the precious nectar.

"Oh, before I forget," Spencer paused on the way out of the den. "Dec has his first Tae Kwan Do class this afternoon, do you want to take him?"

"By myself?"

Spencer giggled at her surprised expression. "Think you can handle that?"

"Yeah, sure, I can handle that." Ashley smiled, pleased that Spencer was trusting her with Declan. "I can totally do that."

"I know you can. The class starts at three don't forget."

"Three, got it." _I won't let you down, Spence._

-  
TBC


	24. I Won't Let You Down

**Chapter 24 - I Won't Let You Down**

At exactly 4:23 that afternoon, Ashley and Declan came bounding in through the front door, all keyed up from their first martial arts class. They entered the living room, punching and kicking at invisible enemies.

The entirety of the lesson had been a demonstration by the senior students to show the younger kids what they could achieve providing they stuck with the sport. Seeing the kids jumping around and breaking wooden boards with nothing but their fists and feet was enough to get both mother and son hyped up. Ashley especially, her son was going to be a fucking ninja!

As they flailed uncoordinatedly around the living room Ashley, being Ashley, misjudged a kick and sent the ugly porcelain lamp that Glen and Kyla had given them as a wedding present, flying across the room to smash against the wall.

Immediately all movement ceased. "Uh-oh," Declan uttered, slapping his hands across his eyes and awaiting his mother's reaction.

Ashley bit her lip as she frowned at the irreparably broken pieces of lamp that were scattered across the carpet. _Well, at least Spence isn't home to see this._ "If your mother asks, the dog did it," she finally instructed him.

A single blue eye peeked out from between tiny fingers, once he'd ascertained that his more mercurial mother wasn't going to have a meltdown, he removed his hands from his face entirely. Willing to go along with whatever his momma wanted, Declan nodded rapidly, sending his golden curls bouncing.

"I'd better clean this up."

"Clean what up?" Spencer asked, having arrived back from visiting her parents just in time to catch the tail-end of the conversation. She entered the living room to find her wife and son doing their best 'deer in the headlights' impression.

"Uh, the lamp. We came home and found it all smashed. I think Barney must've done it."

"Yeah, Barney," Declan echoed.

_Oh, like I'm really going to fall for that._ Spencer thought as she knelt down and examined the remnants of the lamp. Too be honest, she was kind of relieved that they wouldn't have to use it anymore. "Oh, well, it was ugly anyway," she said lightly, straightening back up and wiping her hands together.

"Wait, so you're not mad at me?"

"Why would I be mad?" Spencer took the rare opportunity to mess with Ashley's head. "It's not like you had anything to do with this…did you?"

"Me? Nooooo," Ashley denied quickly, making it even more painfully obvious that she was lying. _Oh shit, she so knows.  
_  
_I really don't know why she even bothers anymore._ "Okay, so do you want me to help you clean it up?"

"No! No, I've got it," Ashley said, rushing out of the room to get a dustpan.

As soon as she was out of the room, Spencer turned to Declan. "Did Barney really break the lamp, Dec?"

Declan was torn. Momma told him that he should never lie to his Mommy but she also told him to tell her that Barney had done it. In the end he settled for just shrugging.

"Okay, Dec. I believe you." Spencer gathered the frowning boy up into a hug and kissed his soft cheek. "So how was your class?"

"It was so cool!" Declan exclaimed, perking up infinitely. "Are you going to come and watch me next time? I'll get to do stuff."

Spencer smiled at his obvious excitement, She would've liked to have been there for his first class but she thought it was more important for Ashley to have a chance to have some one on one time with their boy. "Of course, I'll come."

"And I get to wear a uniform," Declan continued.

"I'm sure that you'll look very handsome," Spencer said, pushing his hair back out of his eyes. "So, you're going to be staying with grandma and grandpa tonight-"

"Why?" Ashley asked, as she came back into the room with the dustpan and broom, that had taken her ages to locate, and started sweeping up the mess she had made.

"We're going out."

Ashley frowned, trying to remember if they had made any plans for the evening. "We are?"

"Yeah, Chelsea called and invited us to the opening of her art show tonight."

"Ugh, why?" Ashley grunted. "I don't get why you're still friends with her, Spence, you have like nothing in common. I mean, I understood it while we were in high school and she was dating your brothers but now…" She trailed off shaking her head. She wasn't one to tell her wife who she could and couldn't be friends with (well, except for that one time) but she truly couldn't understand why Spencer would want to be friends with the 'artist' that had broken her brother's heart.

"I wouldn't say that we're friends now, more like old acquaintances," Spencer clarified. "But, you know how nervous she gets about her art, she just wants some familiar faces there tonight, that's all. Come on, it'll be fun."

Ashley made a face at her wife's blatant lie. "No, it won't."

"Okay, so it won't," Spencer admitted, rolling her eyes. "But there will be free food and wine."  
_  
Free wine, eh?_ Ashley thought, quirking an eyebrow._ Free wine plus Spencer usually equals fun times for me._ "Fine, I guess we can go."

Like she really had a choice in the matter. "Thank you. Now I'm going to give Dec a bath before dad gets here, are you going to get changed after you finish doing that?"

Ashley looked down at herself. "What's wrong with what I'm wearing now?" At this point, she was just being difficult. She knew that she couldn't go to an fancy art gallery in her workout clothes.

Spencer sighed. "Just get changed, Ash."

-

"You're wearing that?" Spencer asked, returning from the bathroom to find Ashley putting the finishing touches on her curled hair and wearing a pair of ripped jeans and a vest that only covered about thirty percent of her torso.

"Yep." Ashley moved away from the mirror to flop down on the bed to watch her wife change her clothes. "I don't get dressed up for anything less than the Grammy's, you know that."

"You're going to be cold." Spencer knew better than to argue with her, at least she was coming. Besides, if the art sucked then she'd still have something pretty to stare at all evening.

"I can wear a jacket."

"Fair enough." Spencer let it go. "So, um, mom and I were talking today…"

"That sounds ominous."

"I think that we should get our wills made," she finished unperturbed. Ashley laughing wasn't quite the reaction she'd expected to get. "I know that you don't like talking about this stuff but with the kids I think that we have a responsibility to-"

"Spence," Ashley cut her off. She slid off the bed and moved behind her wife to draw up the zipper on her dress, kissing the exposed back of her neck before she let her blonde hair fall back into place. "That's not why I was laughing. I already have a will."

Spencer turned to face her. "Since when?"

"I had one drawn up the same day I got my inheritance. I didn't want Christine getting her hands on it if I ended up kicking it and Kyla had her own money, so I just left everything to you."

"But…we were broken up…" Spencer said slowly, wondering how she had never known.

Ashley shrugged, looking down. "Just because we weren't together at the time didn't mean that I'd stopped caring about you. Even if I did a really bad job of showing it. I just wanted to make sure that you'd be taken care of if anything happened to me. It didn't matter if we were together or not."

Touched, Spencer felt her eyes welling up. "Ash, I…why didn't you ever tell me?"

"Like you said, I don't like to talk about this kind of stuff." Figuring that maybe she could use Spencer's current emotional state to her advantage, Ashley started kissing her wife and moving her back towards the bed.

But the second Spencer felt the mattress against her back, she put a stop to it. "We have to finish getting ready."

Ashley groaned and rolled off her. "Do we really have to go to this stupid art show? I mean, your parents are going to have Dec all night, we could-"

"We'll have sex when we get home, Ash," said Spencer, knowing exactly where her wife's mind was at.

"That's not what I was going to say. I was simply going to suggest that we could drink some wine and, um, play scrabble?"

"Uh-huh, and by play scrabble, you mean?"

"…Have sex in every room of the house," Ashley admitted. "Come on, Spence, we haven't done that since Dec was born."

Spencer grinned at her. Truth was, she couldn't think of anything better but she had made a promise to Chelsea and she hated letting people down. "Tell you what, we go tonight and then, I'll ask mom to take him for the whole weekend."

Ashley eyed her warily. "The whole weekend?" Spencer nodded. "Fine, we'll go."

"Good girl," Spencer chirped, kissing the tip of Ashley's nose and hopping up off the bed to finish getting ready. "You never know, we might have fun."

Ashley flopped back down on the bed, pouting. "Fucking Chelsea."

-  
TBC


	25. This Protector

**Chapter 25 - This Protector**

"Are you absolutely sure that we can't skip this?" Ashley made one last ditch effort to get out of it as they entered the small gallery.

"Yes. Come on, Ash, we just have to make an appearance for an hour and then…" Spencer trailed off as she read the name of the other featured artist off one of the posters advertising the event. _Chelsea Lewis and Carmen Finkle? Oh goddammit._ "You know what, you're right, we should go home."

"We should?" Ashley frowned at Spencer's change of tune but wasn't going to fight it.

"Spencer!"

Spencer cringed at the sound of Chelsea's voice but forced a smile onto her face as she turned around. "Chelsea, hey. Thanks for inviting us."

"Thank you for coming." She stepped forward and hugged Spencer lightly. "Girl, you look amazing," she said, releasing her and acknowledging Ashley with a nod. "Ashley, it's been a while."  
_  
Not long enough._ "Yeah."

Ashley tuned out as Chelsea started talking as she was rarely interested in anything that the artist had to say. _God, she is so annoying! "I don't want to keep my baby. Yes, I do. No, I don't. Yes, I do…Oops, I lost it. Oh hi, my dead baby daddy's brother, I'm going to lead you on and make you fall in love with me and then ditch you to go to Paris!"_ Ashley thought as she scanned the room for the free food that she had been promised. Finally, her eyes fell on one of the waiters._ Cheese and crackers? That's not food, that's what you eat before you eat food. I've been duped!_ She turned her attention back to the conversation when she heard her name mentioned. "What?"

"You don't mind if I steal Spencer away for just a minute do you?"

Spencer looked at Ashley with pleading eyes. _Don't leave me alone with her!_

_Sorry baby, but you're the one that wanted to come._ "Not at all, I'm sure I can find something to amuse myself with while she's gone."

Spencer glared over Chelsea's shoulder as she was whisked away.

-

Ashley had been about to go in search of the promised free wine (although, if the cheese and crackers were any indication, it would probably be from a cask) when she was distracted by one of the awful paintings hanging on the wall.

She had never been a fan of Chelsea's art. Especially that stupid memorial for the victim's of the shooting she'd made. _What was with all the hands? Were they supposed to be reaching up out of their graves? Was she implying that Clay had become a zombie?_ she absently thought as she tried to figure out what the multicolored blotches of paint on the yellow background was supposed to be.

"Amazing, isn't it," some random guy wearing a beret sidled up to her and began talking without any introduction. "I love the way the artist has juxtaposed the depressing subject matter with such bright primary colors. What do you think?"

Ashley grimaced. _I wish Spence was here, she's smart, she'd know what this guy's talking about._ "Um…I like the colors?"

-

By this time, Spencer was really regretting accepting that stupid invitation. Really the only reason she didn't turn it down was because she'd thought it would stop her from thinking about tomorrow too much. From thinking what would happen if the pregnancy test Kyla took turned up negative. Not that there was a huge chance of that happening, maybe five percent, that's what the doctor had said.

Chelsea had spent five minutes showing her some painting that was supposedly inspired by Clay's memory before the artist spotted some critic that she apparently just had to schmooze and took off with a promise to find Spencer again later.

"Spencer."

Spencer stiffened at the distinctively husky voice and turned. "Carmen," she said so coldly that there may as well have been icicles dripping off her words.

"You look good." Carmen leered at her. "Really good."

"You too," Spencer responded, unable to fight her polite upbringing.

Unfortunately, Carmen took this as an indication for her to move closer to the uncomfortable blonde. "I didn't know that Chels had invited you and I'm going to guess that you didn't know that I'd be here either," she drawled.

"You'd be right," Spencer answered tersely, backing away. "I, uh, actually have to go, I only stopped by to wish Chelsea luck and it's getting late-"

Carmen stopped her by grabbing her wrist. "It's barely even eight." Her grip on Spencer's wrist tightened, to the point where it started to become painful, when she tried to pull away.

"Carmen, let me go," Spencer fought to stay calm even as her eyes frantically searched the room for her wife.

"Come and have a drink with me, we can catch up."

"I don't think so." Spencer tugged at the hand restraining her again. _Come on, Ash, where are you?_

-

The random art critic guy was halfway through a lengthy explanation of Chelsea's art work, when Ashley's 'Spencer sense' started to tingle.

Without bothering to excuse herself from the bereted man, Ashley wandered off in search of her wife and was not happy with what she found.

Drawing herself up to her full diminutive height and ready to get her Alpha female on, Ashley approached the pair and wrapped a possessive arm around Spencer's waist. "Problem?"

The two women's response to Ashley's presence couldn't have been more different. Spencer curled herself into her wife's protective embrace while Carmen released her and backed away. "So it's true," she said with a smirk. "You really did marry the living Bratz doll."

"Bratz doll?" Ashley scoffed, unaffected. "They stopped making those like ten years ago. Way to be dated, Bangs."

Carmen's hand went to her hair, which happened to be even worse than it had been in high school, in a self-conscious gesture.

"I have to say Hobo Barbie," Ashley continued. "This is quite a step up. The last we saw of you, you were hocking your fugly sketches out of the back of your car. Who'd you blow to get this gig?"

Carmen bristled, her lip curling up into a snarl. It was one thing to insult her hair but her art? No way. "You'd better shut your mouth-"

"Or what? You'll push me into a wall. Oh yeah, I know all about that." Spencer had let it slip one day, figuring that they'd never see Carmen again. Obviously, she had been wrong.

"Did she tell you how much she liked it? I swear, she was got so wet that night that I barely knew what to do with her-"

"What?" Spencer yelped, grabbing Ashley as she lunged at Carmen. "Are you insane?"

"A little bit."

Spencer ignored her and focused on trying to soothe Ashley who was still straining against her in an effort to get at the other woman. "Ash, calm down," she said softly against her wife's ear as she lightly scratched her nails across her exposed stomach, a move that usually calmed her down but seemed to be having little effect in this instance.

"But she said-"

"I know and we both know that she's full of it. Come on, baby, she's not worth it." Spencer's efforts seemed to be working until Ashley saw Carmen smiling smugly over the blonde's shoulder and it set her off again. "Ashley." She grabbed Ashley's face and forced her to look at her. "Let it go. For me. Just let it go and we'll go home."

Ashley's jaw clenched. It went against everything inside her to just let Carmen get away with hurting Spencer like that but if she didn't then Spencer would get all upset and probably cry. She didn't want Spencer to cry. "Okay," she relented, relaxing slightly.

"Could you be any more pussywhipped?"

_Does she have a death wish?_ "Shut the fuck up, Carmen!" Spencer snapped at her and started dragging Ashley along, intent on getting out of there as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, Carmen happened to be in between them and the only exit. Of course, Ashley couldn't resist getting one last shot in.

"If I ever see you again, I'll put you _through_ a fucking wall," she threatened, delighting in seeing the stupid smirk slide off Carmen's, and shoulder checked the shorter woman hard enough to send her stumbling backwards, as they passed by.

-

"Oh yeah, that was real fun," Ashley said, closing the door to her car. "The most fun I've ever had!"

"I'm sorry," Spencer apologized, grimacing.

"Why are you sorry? It's not like you knew that she was going to be there. Chelsea should've told you." _So really it's all her fault. Stupid Chelsea._

"About what Carmen said," Spencer began quietly, looking down at her fidgeting hands. "We never-"

Ashley reached over and stilled her nervous hands. "I know you didn't." She chuckled at Spencer's look of surprise. "What, did you really think that I'd take that morons word over yours?"

Spencer shook her head, feeling foolish. She didn't know what she had been thinking.

"Honestly, I don't know what you ever saw in that loser." _I mean, I know that I'm not the greatest catch but she is so much worse._

"Um, how about she was the only other lesbian in the school." The dating pool at King High was shallower than a children's wading pool and, desperate to try and move on, Spencer settled for taking what she could get. "Besides, I could ask you the same thing about Aiden."

"Touché," Ashley said, wrinkling up her nose. "I really wish that you'd let me kick her ass."

"Next time," Spencer promised, deciding to indulge her wife.

"Awesome."

-  
TBC


	26. Everybody's Gonna Be Happy

**Chapter 26 - Everybody's Gonna Be Happy**

"I don't hear peeing."

"Shut up, Glen!" Kyla squealed, her voice muffled by the bathroom door.

"I thought you said that you need to go."

"I do."

"So hurry up and piss already," Ashley grumbled, slumping against the wall outside the bathroom where they were all crowded around.

"You know, I don't get why she actually has to pee **on** the stick," Glen said. "Why can't she just pee in a cup and then dunk the test in it."

"That's not a bad idea," Ashley agreed and pounded on the bathroom door. "Do you want us to get you a cup?"

"No! Stop pressuring me!"

"Why don't you two go and watch tv or something," Spencer suggested, subtly moving her wife and brother along, down the hallway.

Glen looked at Ashley and shrugged, anything was better than waiting around to listen to Kyla pee, in misguided attempt at being supportive.

-

After a quick detour through the kitchen to get some drinks, Ashley and Glen sank down onto the couch in the living room and flipped on the tv.

"I'm here, live on location, with Hollywood's hottest rising star, Cassandra Vale," An overly cheerful entertainment report chirped.

Ashley tuned out the senseless prattle and rolled her eyes at Glen, who was practically drooling. Not that she really blamed him, Cassandra was beautiful, she always had been, and there was a reason that she had been dubbed the next Angelina Jolie after landing her breakout role a little over two years ago. "Glen, am I going to have to smack you or are you going to stop ogling somebody that isn't my sister?"

"Wha- Uh, sorry but come on, Ash, she is sooo hot," Glen groaned.

"Sure." She paused to pop open her can of Coke. "If you're into closet cases."

"Wait, you think that she's gay?" Glen shook his head, deep in denial. "No. No way, there is no way that Cassandra Vale is gay. She's got a new boyfriend every other week. And how would you know anyway?"

Ashley shrugged. "We hooked up once, back in our club rat days."

She chuckled as Glen struggled not to swallow his tongue in excitement. "You…you and her. You two…"

"Had sex, you can say it."

"Ohhhh man, that must've been so hot."

"Surprisingly no. It was so bad, she kept trying to top me."

"Who topped you?" Spencer enquired, having entered the room at that very moment.

"Nobody!" Ashley pulled her wife into her lap. "Nobody tops me." Well, there was that one time that she let Spencer try but they both agreed to never speak of it again.

"Did you know that Ashley had sex with Cassandra Vale?" Glen blurted out.

"I had very bad sex with Cassandra Vale and it was like a million years ago." She clarified before Spencer could get insecure. "And stop picturing it!" She snapped, punching her brother in law in the arm.

Glen held up a finger and closed his eyes for a long moment, committing the mental image to memory, before opening them and nodding. "And I'm done."

"Ew!" Ashley and Spencer exclaimed in unison.

"I'm done!" Kyla announced, walking into the room with a covered plate and egg timer in hand.

"About time and, again, ew," Ashley remarked while Kyla set the plate down on the coffee table.

"So what do we do now?" asked Glen.

"We wait," Kyla replied, setting the timer to five minutes.

"Fantastic," Ashley yawned, nuzzling her face against the side of Spencer's neck. "More waiting."

"You look tired, Ash. I didn't know that going to an art show was so tiring."

Ashley smirked at her sister. "Oh, it wasn't." _But the after party was. Ohhhhh yeah!  
_  
"How was it anyway?" Glen questioned, tapping his fingers against the arm of the chair and trying not to look too interested in the answer.

"It sucked," Ashley said bluntly.

"Carmen was there," Spencer elaborated further.

"Your ex-girlfriend Carmen?" Kyla gasped dramatically.

"No, Carmen Miranda," Spencer drawled. Her face fell when three confused faces stared back at her. "What so Ashley's the only one that's allowed to be sarcastic?" she sulked.

"Aww," Ashley cooed, squeezing Spencer tight. "I love it when you try and make jokes that nobody understands."

"So what happened?" Kyla butt in, eager to hear some good gossip.

"Carmen came onto me. Repeatedly."

"And she called me a living Bratz doll," added Ashley.

"Bratz doll?" Kyla laughed. "They haven't made those in years."

"I know, right!"

"And then she lied about having sex with me," Spencer continued. "And Ashley tried to beat her up."

"But Spencer stopped me."

"What? You should've let her kick that skank's ass," said Glen. He'd never liked Carmen.

"That's what I said!"

"And then I would've spent the night down at the police station bailing you out," Spencer defended her decision and brushed Ashley's hair back off her face. "Besides, it's my job to keep you out of trouble, remember?" It was in her wedding vows and everything.

They were so caught up in gazing adoringly into each others eyes that when the timer went off, they both jumped at the loud buzzing.

"Shut up, Glen," Spencer muttered at her laughing brother as they all stood up and looked down apprehensively at the covered test.

"Spence, do you want to do it?" Ashley asked. _I'd do it myself but I really don't want to touch something that Kyla's pissed all over._

Spencer nodded shakily and, after a reassuring squeeze of her wife's hand, examined the pregnancy test that Kyla had just taken. Two lines. "It's positive," she announced with the barest hint of tears in her eyes. She had wanted this for so long and now it was finally happening. She just wished that she was the one carrying the baby.

"Oh, thank god," Kyla sighed in relief. She didn't know if she would put herself through the highly embarrassing implantation process again, if it hadn't taken.

_Well, there's no turning back now_, Ashley thought. "Awesome. Now who wants pizza? I'm starving."

-

TBC


	27. Sunday Morning

**Chapter 27 - Sunday Morning  
**

"Hi."

"Hi." Ashley blinked her sleepy eyes and smiled lazily up at her wife. "Have you been watching me sleep?"

"Maybe," said Spencer as she drew back the hand that she had been using to affectionately stroke her sleeping wife's face.

"You stalker," Ashley chuckled, pulling the sheets up over both their heads. "So how long do you think we have before Dec comes in to jump on us?" she asked, rolling on her side so she was face to face with her wife.

"Not long enough for what you have in mind." Spencer caught the hand that was creeping it's way down her tanned belly and pulled it up to her mouth to kiss Ashley's knuckles.

"Not even if I promise to get you off in sixty seconds or less?" It wasn't an empty promise. Ashley knew that she could do it and it certainly wouldn't be the first time.

"Or my next orgasm is free?" Spencer giggled. She loved this quiet time they spent together in the mornings, with the covers over their heads, blocking out all but the barest hint of the sun, and speaking in hushed voice. It was like nothing existed but them. "No, seriously, I think Dec's already walked in on us enough for one lifetime."

"Fine, fine," Ashley sighed in mock disappointment. "Your loss."

"Oh, I know." Spencer started playing with the fingers of the hand she was holding. "So I've been thinking-"

"Uh-oh."

"Shut up," she laughed. "I think that we should buy one of Chelsea's paintings."

"Why?"

"Because we totally cut out on her that night and I think that she's pissed at me about it."

Ashley did not see a downside to this. "Good, maybe now she'll stop inviting us to lame stuff."

While Spencer certainly understood her wife's sentiment, she couldn't stand to have anyone be upset with her and she especially hated letting people down. At her core, Spencer was a people pleaser and it was a trait that she had never grown out of. "Ash."

That was all she had to say. Ashley rolled her eyes and sighed. "We wouldn't have to hang it in the house, would we?" She couldn't think of anything worse than having a fugly painting hanging up where she would have to see it every day.

Spencer shook her head. "We could just stick it in the basement. Who knows, maybe one day Chelsea will become famous and it'll be worth millions."

"I doubt it," Ashley scoffed before finally caving, as she always did when it came to her Spencer's wishes. "Okay, we'll buy one of her fug paintings if that's what you really want."

Spencer grinned and leaned in to softly kiss her wife. But before they could get to carried away, the bed bounced under a new added weight.

The sheet that had been over their heads slid back to reveal their son's face beaming down at them. "Time to get up! Time to get up!"

"I think that he's trying to tell us that it's time to get up," Ashley said dryly. In one fluid movement, she lunged forward, grabbing the curly haired boy around the waist and threw him over her shoulder as she jumped out of bed. Declan's delighted shrieks of laughter echoed down the hallway as Ashley carried him downstairs.

Spencer chuckled at their antics and flopped back down onto the bed, wondering if she could get an extra twenty minutes of sleep in before the dynamic duo returned to drag her out of bed.

-

When Spencer descended the stairs, a good half an hour later, and entered the kitchen, she was hit with the mouth watering smell of fresh pancakes.

"Aww, you're up," Ashley said, looking over her shoulder as she worked the batter evenly around the frying pan. "We were going to bring you breakfast in bed."

"Well, I can go back upstairs if you'd like."

"No, no," Declan said, clinging to his mother's leg. "You stay here."

"Okay, baby." Spencer sat down at the table and pulled him up onto her lap. "Have you been helping your Momma make breakfast?"

Declan nodded very seriously. "I broked the eggs."

"Broke, Dec, you broke the eggs," she corrected him while Ashley set two plates of pancakes down in front of them before joining them at the table with a plate of her own. "Chocolate chips, Ash?" Not exactly a healthy breakfast choice for a four year old.

Ashley looked up from drowning her pancakes in syrup to pout at her wife. "He made the face."

"I like them, Mommy," Declan said, jutting out his bottom lip and making his blue eyes go wide.

"See!" Ashley gestured wildly towards him with her fork. "He's doing it again! How am I supposed to say no to that?"

"Okay," Spencer relented, knowing the extent of the power that the Carlin pout had over Ashley. "But you're getting toast and muesli tomorrow, mister,"

"Yuck!" Declan exclaimed. Not if he had anything to say about it, he wouldn't.

"Now, do you want me to cut your pancakes up for you?"

"I can do it," he said, determinedly jabbing at the soft food with his special plastic cutlery.

"So what's on the agenda for today?" Ashley asked, having already cleared her plate in record time. _Please don't say Kyla! Pleeease don't say Kyla._

"I was thinking that we could go over to Kyla's for lunch."

_Aw, shit._ "Do you really think that's a good idea, Spence? We've been over there every day for the last three weeks." Ashley loved Kyla and all but there was only so much of her sister that she could handle. Actually, there was only so much of anybody not named Spencer or Declan that she could handle.

"She's having our baby."

"I know. But we need to give her some breathing room. Look, I know that you want to be around her all the time and that you don't want to miss anything, but do you really want to smother her?"

"No, I guess not," Spencer admitted, reluctantly. It wasn't even like there was anything to miss, it's not like Kyla's body hadn't even changed very much in the three and a half weeks that she had been pregnant. But Spencer was desperate to forge a bond with her unborn child, one that would've usually come naturally had she been the one carrying it.

"She needs a break, I think we all do. It's meant to be a pretty nice day weather wise, how about we go to the beach, instead?"

"Beach!" Declan screeched happily. He loved the water and they hadn't been to the beach for such a long time.

Spencer sighed and grinned down at her son. "I guess we're going to the beach, then."

-  
TBC


	28. Sandcastles In The Sand

**Chapter 28 - Sandcastles In The Sand **

After arriving at the beach, they quickly discovered that, although the weather was warm, the water was still a little too chilly for swimming and set up camp on the sand.

"There," Ashley said, wiping the sand off her hands and looking proudly at their lopsided sandcastle. "All done."

"No, it's not," Declan corrected his mother. "We have to build a moat."

"Why?"

"To keep the velociraptors out!" Velociraptors freaked him out. He'd take his dinosaurs without feathers, thank you very much.

"Oh. Well, of course." While Declan determinedly started burrowing around the sandcastle, Ashley looked over at her wife who was digging a massive hole into the sand. "Spence, what are you doing?"

"Digging a hole."

"I can see that. But why? We don't need any more sand."

Spencer looked up and smirked mischievously at her. "I'm going to bury you in it."

"Oh, come on!" Ashley groaned in protest. "Not again!"

It had all started when Declan had first become interested in dinosaurs and Ashley had thought it would be a fun idea for him to play paleontologist and dig her up. She had never intended for it to become a regular thing and yet…

"Sorry, Ash," Spencer giggled at the brunette's exaggerated pout. "It's tradition."

"Now it's done," Declan announced, finally satisfied that his castle would be satisfactorily protected against the velociraptors. "Can we bury Momma now?"

_Does he have to sound so excited about that?_

"Come here and let me put some more sunscreen on you," Spencer said, holding her hands out for her son to come to her.

Declan glared at her from under rim of his bucket hat. "No." He didn't like disobeying his mommy but he really disliked the way that the sunscreen made the sand cling to his skin and it felt like she'd only just put some on him a few minutes ago.

"Dec." Spencer put on her mom voice. "If you don't come over here and let me put the sunscreen on you then we can just pack up and go home right now."

Declan stared at his blonde mother, considering his options. He knew that she wasn't a pushover like his momma and would follow through on her threat.

Ashley sat back and watched, content with letting Spencer assert herself parentally. She was confident that she had trained Dec well and that he would do the right thing.

Finally, Declan gave a long suffering sigh and thrust his arms towards Spencer.

Laughing at their son's dramatics, Ashley pulled herself to her feet. "Good boy," she praised him, patting the top of his head. "I'm going get my board shorts out of the car," she informed her wife. While they didn't completely stop the sand from getting into some highly uncomfortable places, they were better than just her bikini bottoms. "You want anything?"

"Ice cream?" Declan replied hopefully while squirming as Spencer rubbed the lotion onto his already pink cheeks.

"Maybe later, D."

-

"You're getting a kick out of this, aren't you?"

Spencer grinned and emptied another bucket of sand onto her wife. She couldn't really deny it. She was about to answer Ashley's sarcastic question when she was rudely interrupted.

"Hey, guys!"

She looked up and was confronted by the gag worth sight of Aiden Dennison wearing nothing but a speedo and flip flops.

"Jesus Aiden, cover your moobs, there are children present!" Ashley immediately snapped at him.

Spencer barely smothered a laugh as she got her first good look at Aiden in a long time. Ashley had told her that he was aging badly but he looked even worse than she'd imagined. From the receding hairline that had turned his forehead into a sixhead to the greying hair, sagging muscles and patchy facial hair, he was barely recognizable as the relatively attractive boy that they had once known.

"Hi, Aiden." Spencer couldn't help being nice to him, he just looked so pathetic.

"Hey, Spencer."

"What are you doing here? Do you even remember what happened the last time we met?" This probably would've come off as more threatening if Ashley hadn't of been buried up to her neck in sand.

"I do," Aiden confirmed, not looking at all upset as he remembered getting his ass kicked. "I actually wanted to thank you for that."

Ashley frowned up at him. "You do?" she questioned skeptically.

"Yeah, see after I was late for work at Rite Aid that day, they fired me. Something about it being against their policy to employ sex offenders….yeah, I don't know where that got that idea from." He shrugged gormlessly.

"Oh…I'm sorry." No, she wasn't.

"No!" Aiden rushed to assuage her assumed misplaced feelings of guilt. "It's okay, really. It was the best thing to happen to me since I got shot through the heart. It really made me rethink what I was doing with my life. So that's how I ended up at the police academy."

Spencer and Ashley exchanged incredulous looks and Ashley silently signalled to her wife that it was time to start digging her up now.

"So you're a cop?" she asked while Spencer went about removing the sand that they had piled on top of her, as stealthily as she could. Declan scowled at his mommy for destroying their work before they were finished but kept his mouth shut, sensing that there must be a good reason for it.

"Not yet, I'm still in training since I failed the psych evaluation. But now I'm in therapy, so fingers crossed for next time. Actually, that's the other reason I came over. See my therapist says that I should apologize to the people that I've wronged in the past to relieve myself of the burden of guilt."

_Is he for real? The douche hasn't felt an ounce of guilt in his life!_ Ashley thought.

"So, Spencer, I'm sorry for stealing Ashley from you in senior year. It was wrong of her to choose me over you," he said, displaying a stunning lack of self-awareness.

"Uh…thank you?" Spencer replied, clearly flabbergasted, while Ashley quietly had a conniption.

"It's cool. At least I did the decent thing in the end and broke up with her. I mean, if I hadn't done that, you guys probably never would've gotten back together."

_You die, fucker! You die now!_

"You know, this could've been our kid." Aiden gestured to Declan as he continued to drive his point home.

_Okay, that's it._ "Hey Dec," Ashley addressed her son. "Did you know that Aiden here used to be a boxer?"

"I still am, actually," said Aiden, looking delighted that Ashley was finally letting him into her child's life.

"Declan's into martial arts too," she continued, while Spencer sped up her efforts to dig her out. "Hey Dec, why don't you show Aiden some of what you've learned?" If she couldn't kick Aiden's ass, she'd just have to settle for the next best thing.

Declan looked dubiously at his mother, wondering why she wanted him to hit the annoying old man. She just nodded reassuringly at him.

"C'mon Sport," Aiden said, kneeling in the sand, so that he was more on Declan's level, and putting his palms up for the boy to hit. "Show your Uncle Aiden what you've got."

"Yeah, Dec, show him your Falcon Kick." After only a few weeks of sitting in on Declan's classes, Ashley fancied herself as some kind of master and had begun inventing her own moves to teach to her son at home.

"Ash," Spencer warned in a low voice. As funny as this had the potential to be, she wasn't sure if she approved of using their son in that way.

Aiden smiled encouragingly at the blond boy. "Sure, show me," he said. Never having heard of a Falcon Kick he was curious to see what it was. Too bad for him, it was the move that Ashley had taught Declan to use should a pedophile ever attempt to abduct him.

Declan shrugged his tiny shoulders and drove the ball of his heel into the balding man's crotch. Well, he had asked for it.

Aiden let out an undignified squeal and collapsed into the sand, cupping the crotch of his speedos. While Declan lacked the kicking power of his mother, it still hurt.

Her body shaking with barely controlled laughter, Ashley managed to stand and brush off the sand that still clung to her body. "That's my boy," she cheered, taking her son's hand and leading him away from the sobbing male. "You have definitely earned that ice cream." She looked back over her shoulder. "Spence, you coming?"

"Sorry," Spencer sheepishly apologized to Aiden, her son had just kicked him in the balls, she had to at least say something, before flouncing away to catch up with the rest of her family. "Was that really necessary?" she questioned Ashley as the brunette slung her arm across her shoulders.

If there was ever a good reason for Aiden Dennison _not_ to be kicked in the nuts, Ashley'd like to hear it "Always, Spencer, always." The world really would be a better place should Aiden lose his inability to reproduce. "Now, they don't have rainbow sherbet here, so what flavor do you want?" she asked, moving on.

"Uh...Strawberries and Cream."

"You are so gay, Spencer," Ashley sighed happily. "So very gay."

"And you love it."

"And I love it."

-

TBC


	29. One For The Money

**Chapter 29 - One For The Money…**

"We're going to get to hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time, why aren't you excited?"

"I am excited," Ashley protested as they got out of the car.

"You're not acting like it."

"How am I supposed to act? Just because I haven't spent the morning frantically cleaning, it doesn't mean that I'm not excited." Excited, terrified, they we're almost the same thing, right?

"I don't know." Spencer shrugged sheepishly.

"So why are we even having this conversation?" Ashley asked, as she unlocked the door to Kyla's house without even bothering to knock.

"I don't…Hey, where did you get a key from?" Spencer distinctly remembered Kyla revoking Ashley's key to the house when she found out that Ashley had been sneaking in and rearranging the furniture to try and trick her into thinking that it was haunted by a poltergeist.

"I got Holly to steal one for me," she explained, slipping the precious key back into the safety of her pocket.

"Ashley." The disapproval was clear in Spencer's voice.

"What? She's having our baby, I think that entitles us to have a key to her house." Never mind that she'd secretly had it since long before Kyla had even gotten pregnant.

They walked through the house to find Kyla in the kitchen taking a massive bite out of a freshly cut pineapple slice with a pained expression on her face.

"What's the matter with you?" Ashley asked bluntly, making Kyla jump.

"It burns my mouth like acid!" Kyla exclaimed through slightly burnt lips.

"So stop eating it."

_Oh, if only it were that simple._ "I can't! It tastes so good," Kyla said miserably and took another bite of the acidic fruit, cringing as it stung her entire mouth. She was fairly certain that her tongue was bleeding.

"Way to have self-control, Ky." Ashley started to mockingly slow clap.

"It's your fault!" Kyla accused, as Spencer moved the bowl of fruit safely out of her sister in law's reach. "You and your demon spawn!"

Ashley chuckled at her sister's plight. Her daughter wasn't even born yet and she was already tormenting Kyla, Ashley couldn't have been more proud.

"Sorry, Kyla," Spencer apologized, far more sympathetic to the burden of pregnancy cravings. When she had been this far along with Declan, she had ended up eating five whole bags of marshmallows within one hour, the aftermath had not been pleasant for anybody involved…poor Ashley had been the one that had to clean the bathroom. "So are you ready to go? Our appointment's in an hour."

Kyla nodded. "Just let me clean my teeth first."

-

"Sorry, I've really got to pee," Kyla apologized, rushing past the man that she almost knocked over on the way to the bathroom, leaving Spencer and Ashley to finish clearing up her mess.

"I'm sorry, we don't usually let her out of the house," Ashley said, as the man passed by them, looking all kinds of disgruntled.

"Ash," Spencer began gently, leaning her head against her wife's shoulder. "Kyla's having our baby for us, don't you think you should be a little nicer to her?"

Ashley made a face, obviously considering her answer very seriously. "Spence, I don't know if you've noticed this but when Kyla and I are nice to each other, we kind of get this weird incesty vibe going on and it's gross." She shuddered at the thought.

Spencer giggled at her wife's ridiculousness.

"Don't laugh, Spencer!" Ashley pulled away, affronted. "You know, it could've happened!"

"You and Kyla?" Spencer managed to ask through her laughter.

"Yes! Think about it, if I'd never met you and if Dad hadn't of died, Kyla and I would never have known that we were related. I could've been at some club in Baltimore-"

"Why would you have been in a club in Baltimore?" Spencer interrupted, smirking.

"It doesn't matter why." Ashley frowned and continued. "I could've been getting wasted at a club in Baltimore-"

"Do they even have clubs in Baltimore?"

"Spencer!"

"Sorry."

"And Kyla could've been there and I could've ended up fucking her in the bathroom without ever knowing that she was my sister."

"Okay, say that by some whacked coincidence you two did end up in the same club in Baltimore," Spencer began picking apart Ashley's theory. "Why would Kyla want to have sex with you? She's straight."

"Since when has that ever been a problem for me?" Ashley asked, genuinely bewildered by the question. "Anyway, the point is that it could've happened and it's creepy."

Spencer playfully pinched Ashley's cheek. "You have put way too much thought into this."

"Into what?" Kyla asked, emerging from the bathroom.

"Nevermind," said Ashley. She didn't want to give Kyla any ideas, especially now that the crazy pregnancy hormones were kicking in, who knew what she would do!

"I'll tell you later," Spencer said, genuinely amused it all. She put her arm around Kyla's shoulders and started leading her up to the receptionists desk, leaving Ashley to huff indignantly in their wake.

-

"So how's Declan doing?" Dr. Keegan asked as she went about prepping Kyla for the ultrasound. She had been their obstetrician during their first pregnancy and found herself having a great affection for the Davies. She couldn't be happier that they were trying again.

"He's doing great," Spencer started gushing, practically glowing with pride. "He's going to start school next year. I should bring in a new picture hang in the waiting room, the one that's up now is about two years old."

"I'd like that." Dr. Keegan smiled. She loved to keep updated on her patients throughout the stages of their lives and the collage that covered an entire wall of the waiting room was a testament to that. "Okay, here we go." She pressed the ultrasound probe against Kyla's abdomen and started moving it around in search of the baby's heartbeat.

"Oh," she uttered, stilling the probe.

_I don't like the sound of that._ "What? Why are you saying that? Don't say that!" Ashley rapidly ranted, spurred on by the worry that was written all over Spencer's face.

Dr. Keegan smiled reassuringly at them. "It's a good oh," she explained. "There are two heartbeats."

Spencer lit up at the news but Ashley took a little longer to catch on. "The baby has two hearts?" she exclaimed over Kyla's wail of "Oh my God, I'm going to get so fat!"

"It means that there are two babies," Dr Keegan patiently explained.

_NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!_ "B-but we only ordered one," Ashley stammered uselessly. _Forget ever having sex again, we're never going to sleep again and Spencer's never going to have any time to pay attention to me anymore._

"I know. The egg must've split after it was implanted. You two sure do love to beat the odds, don't you."

"What do you mean?" Spencer asked while Ashley continued to silently freak out.

_"Sorry Ash, I can't make out with you, the babies need me." I'd better get used to hearing that. Fuckin A. Why? Why is this happening to me? I'm not a bad person…Well, not that bad. **Don't be such a selfish douche, look at how happy Spencer is.** Wait, who said that? I'm hearing voices now? These babies are driving me insane, they haven't even been born yet and they're driving me insane-_

"I mean that what I'm seeing here is a perfectly healthy set of identical twin girls."

_Oh shit. Damn me and my super sperm!….Okay, now that sounded wrong._ "Identical?" Ashley squeaked, looking increasingly pale.

Spencer looked back at her wife and frowned, noticing that Ashley appeared to be on the verge of passing out. "Ash, are you alright?"

"Oh, I'm great." _Juuuust great._

-

TBC


End file.
